Small, creeping, epiphytic herb; stems scarcely 1 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent. Petioles to 5 mm long, basal, usually perpendicular to blade; blades orbicular, to 12 mm diam, fleshy, bicolorous, often sparsely crisp-pubescent above. Spikes to 2 cm long, little more than 1 mm wide, often on short lateral branches; peduncles short; bracts round-peltate, glabrous. Fruits globose-ovoid, less than 1 mm long; stigma subapical. Croat 9446. The species is apparently closely related to P. ebingeri. See that species for discussion. Throughout the tropics of the Western Hemisphere; from sea level to 2,200 m elevation. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Los Santos, Panama, and Darién and from premontane wet forest in Colon and Chiriqui.