Polygamous shrub or small tree, usually less than 5 m tall; trunk to 6 cm dbh, unbranched (unless previously damaged). Leaves pinnately compound, clustered near apex, often 1 m or more long, lacking reduced leaflets at apex; petioles ca 25 cm long, terete; petiolules swollen, 5-10 mm long; leaflets usually in 5-8 pairs, oblong-elliptic, acute at apex and base, 20-45 cm long, 6.5-13 cm wide, glabrous above, glabrous to puberulent below. Thyrses small, arranged in panicles to 70 cm long, widely branched, the major branches ribbed; branches, pedicels, and calyces puberulent to tomentulose; pedicels short, to 2 mm long, articulate below calyx; calyx bowl-shaped, to ca 2 mm long, 5-lobed to about middle, the lobes indurate, acute, ciliate; petals 5, oblong, white, 3-5 mm long, acute to blunt at apex, spreading above calyx, glabrous, the scale +/- exceeding petal, sericeous, tufted and slightly spreading at apex; disk raised, 5-angulate, the points alternating with petals; stamens 5 or 8, equaling scales, 3 often reduced or aborted; filaments weakly pubescent, shorter than anthers; anthers oblong, l-4 mm long, the connective beaked at apex; staminate flowers with the ovary densely pubescent, less than 1 mm long; style lacking; stigmas 3, minute, hidden by the pubescence of ovary; bisexual flowers with the ovary ovoid; style nearly glabrous, about as long as ovary; stigmas capitate, held at about the level of anthers. Fruits +/- ellipsoid to globose, brown, sharply apiculate at apex, sparsely pubescent, minutely lenticellate, usually 2-3.5 cm long, with a thick (2-3 mm) woody pericarp; seeds ellipsoid, flat on side if more than 1,1.5-2.5 cm long, embedded in a firm or jellylike, whitish to orange mesocarp. Croat 8236, 14921. Costa Rica to Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas (Coiba Island), Panama, and Darien and from tropical wet forest in Colón (Santa Rita Ridge) and Darien.