Tree, to 18 m tall and 30 cm dbh, +/- glabrous all over; outer bark with many, small, closely spaced, vertical fissures; inner bark brown with white markings; sap without odor. Leaves opposite; petioles 4-6 (11) cm long; petiolules less than 1 cm long on lateral leaflets, longer on terminal leaflet; leaflets 3-9, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 6-13 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, sharply to obscurely serrate. Panicles terminal, branched many times, to 30 cm long; pedicels to 1.5 mm long; flowers 5-parted, fragrant; sepals +/- irregular, concave, at least 1 somewhat longer than others, to 2.7 mm long, rounded at apex, persisting in fruit; petals white, obovate, rounded above, 2.3-2.7 mm long; stamens 5, as long as and alternating with petals from between the lobes of the fluted disk; anthers ovate, attached at center, the thecae directed upward; pistil of 3 free carpels; styles connate at anthesis, later becoming free; stigmas united, at about the level of anthers. Berries yellow, subglobose to obovate, 3-locular, to 2 cm diam, with 3 radial grooves at apex; seeds several per locule, irregularly ovate, 4-5 mm long, smooth, orange-brown. Croat 15048, 17048. Occasional, in the forest. Flowers principally from April to June. The fruits mature from July to September. The subspecies occidentalis occurs in Panama also but usually at elevations above 1,000 m. It is distinguished by having flowers more than 3.5 mm long. Southern Mexico to Colombia; West Indies; most abundant in lower middle America and Panama, from sea level to 850 m. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Darien and from premontane wet forest in Veraguas, Coclé, and Panama. See Fig. 336.