L., Sp. Pl. 1008. 1753 Large monoecious tree, to 25 m tall; trunk to 1(2) m dbh, bearing hard conical spines; branches glabrous; second-year growth with a thin, smooth, brown periderm. Leaves alternate, simple, deciduous; petioles to 20 cm long, with 2 glands at apex; blades ovate, abruptly acuminate, cordate at base, 11-25 cm long, 7-15 cm wide, glabrous above, sparsely long-pubescent to glabrous below, crenate, the teeth often gland-tipped. Receptacle fleshy, conical, 2-4.5 cm long; flowers lacking petals and disk; staminate peduncles to 10 cm long, the flowers red, emerging from the ruptured tissue of a large, conical, fleshy receptacle, to 4 mm high and 3 mm diam, maturing acropetally (toward apex), numbering well over 100, as many as 80 functional at one time; calyx cupulate; pollen yellow, oozing simultaneously from many pores around circumference; pistillate flowers solitary in upper axils; pedicels 2-5 cm long, woody in fruit; calyx cupulate, 3-5 mm long, truncate or shallowly 5-lobed; styles 3, connate into a slender column 2-5 cm long, terminated by a fleshy disk to 1 cm diam with radiating tips to 1 cm long; ovary with ca 15 carpels, each with 1 ovule. Capsules oblate, 5-8 (10) cm diam, 2.5-5 cm long, woody, dehiscing explosively into many concentric cocci; seeds many, disk-shaped, 1.5-2 cm diam. Croat 4907, 5791. Sap and seeds are poisonous to humans and irritating to the skin (Blohm, 1962). Fruits dehisce with a loud report. They are eaten by macaws and monkeys (Allen, 1956).