Tree, to 8 m tall; branches often long and arching; branchlets glabrous. Petioles short, +/- curved, thick; blades moderately thick, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, abruptly or gradually acuminate, rounded or emarginate at base, mostly 20-35 cm long and 7-13 cm wide, glabrous but with inconspicuous pubescence on veins below; lateral veins impressed above, raised below, loop-connected, some reticulate veins prominent. Flowers usually solitary in axils, covered with dense short pubescence; pedicels ca 1 cm long, articulate, with 1 to several small bracts below the articulation; calyx lobes 3, acute, divided nearly to base, ca 1 cm long, often persisting in fruit; petals 6, imbricate, +/- equal, triangular-oblong, ca 2 cm long, to 14 mm wide, green or yellowish; stamens very numerous, ca 2 mm long, forming a dense, round, cushion-shaped mass around style; style somewhat longer than stamens, its many stigmas held tightly together, ca 1 mm long. Monocarps ellipsoid, short-pubescent, ca 1 cm long, purple, on red stipes 10-15 mm long, 1-seeded, usually on older branches. Croat 12216,12693a. Occasional in the young forest; abundant on Orchid Island (R. Foster, pers. comm.). The flowers are seen throughout the year, less commonly from April through June. Fruit maturity time uncertain. Mexico to Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, and Panama, from premontane moist forest in Panama, and from premontane wet forest in the Canal Zone and Panama. Reported from tropical wet and premontane rain forests in Costa Rica (Holdridge et al., 1971). See Figs. 237 and 238.