Description: A medium-sized, occasionally large, tree, with long compound leaves. Each leaf has an odd number of leaflets, from 9-19, usually __. The leaves are alternate, but bunched toward the end of the branches, emanating like spokes of a wheel in all directions from the branch. The leaflets are opposite except for the terminal one. Particularly on young plants, the leaf stalk tends to be reddish toward the outer leaflets. Crushed leaves have a faint turpentine-like smell. The trunk and bark is gray, and sometimes has distinctive, blunt, gray spines (often more like warts than spines); however, not all trees have many warts or spines at all, and the really big trees do not.

Reproduction: Deciduous, losing its leaves around February or March, but growing them back before the rains begin. The small, while flowers appear in dense bunches just after the new leaves. The fruits are yellow, produced from July to October.

Distribution: This is one of the most abundant trees in farmlands and towns throughout Panama, where it is generally only a small or medium-sized tree. It is abundant along roads, and its familiar yellow fruits often pile up on streets and sidewalks in the Canal area. It is also very common within forests around Panama City and Gamboa, but considerably less common in mature forests of Barro Colorado, Soberania, and Fort Sherman. In the forest, its juveniles only survive in natural clearings, where there is lots of light. But giant trees occur sporadically in old-growth forest, reaching diameters over 1 m.

Uses: Jobo is commonly used for living fences in farmland of Panama, since cut branches readily root. The fruits are edible and sometimes called monkey-plum, but the wood is low-quality and seldom used. In the provinces of Herrerra and Los Santos, the bark is used for carving figures, and leaves and roots are occasionally used as medicine.

Descripción: Árbol de 10 a 35 m de alto. Tronco con raíces tablares pequeñas en la base. Corteza exterior gris o marrón castaño, con crestas corchosas duras y similares a espinas. Corteza interior roja o rosada. Hojas imparipinnadas y alternas, con 9-19 folíolos, opuestos en el extremo apical del raquis y subopuestos hacia la base. Folíolos de 3-20 x 2-5 cm, oblongos a ovados, con ápice acuminado, bordes enteros a veces un poco dentados y base desigual. Las nervaduras secundarias se conectan cerca de los bordes de cada folíolo y forman una nervadura submarginal. Las plantas juveniles presentan hojas de mayor tamaño en comparación con los adultos. Pecíolo de 5-12 cm de largo y pulvinado en la base, a veces de color rojo pálido y ligeramente cubierto de pelos. Flores blancas, pequeñas, aromáticas. Frutos globosos, de 2-3 cm de largo, verdes, tornándose amarillos al madurar.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en bosques secos o húmedos de todo el país. Crece en bosques secundarios y pastizales en áreas secas del Pacífico. Deja caer sus hojas totalmente durante la estación seca, pero las repone a inicios de la estación lluviosa.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK sponra Spondias radlkoferi LK2 , pero en S. radlkoferi la corteza exterior del tronco es gris y lisa, los frutos son de mayor tamaño y maduran de color verde o negro. También se puede confundir con LK cedrod Cedrela odorata LK2 , pero en C. odorata los frutos son cápsulas y las semillas son aladas.

Usos: La madera es empleada en la fabricación de cajas, ‘plywood’ y pulpa para papel. La corteza se utiliza para tallar figuras religiosas, barquitos y otros adornos, principalmente en áreas rurales de las provincias de Herrera y Los Santos. Es una de las especies preferidas para postes de cercas vivas, debido a que rebrota con suma facilidad. La pulpa de los frutos maduros es comestible y se emplea para fabricar refrescos y helados. Las hojas y las raíces se usan para cicatrizar heridas y en el tratamiento de fiebres y resfriados.

Tree, mostly 10-30 m tall, to 60 cm dbh; outer bark gray, deeply and coarsely fissured, the raised segments hard, rough, the inner margin irregular; inner bark variously colored, usually with triangular patches of red or tangerine alternating with white; wood soft, white; sap clear, at least never forming viscid droplets; at least the youngest branches puberulent. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, to 60 cm long (to 70 cm on juveniles); petiole and rachis usually finely puberulent; leaflets mostly (3) 9-17, opposite or subopposite; petiolules 6-9 (14) mm long; blades oblong to ovate, usually acuminate, acute to rounded and asymmetrical at base, 3-20 cm long and 1.5-7 cm wide, usually +/- glabrous but with puberulence on midribs and major veins above and below, minutely revolute with a prominent submarginal vein; midrib of larger leaflets arched., the reticulate veins prominulous. Panicles terminal, to 60 cm long.; branches, peduncles, pedicels, and calyces usually puberulent; pedicels 1-5 mm long, usually articulate near base; flowers 5-7 mm wide, 5-parted, bisexual or rarely pistillate, globular to obovoid in bud; calyx shallow, the lobes short, triangular, sharply acute, usually minutely puberulent, ciliate; petals white, acute and inflexed-apiculate at apex, somewhat reflexed at anthesis; stamens 10, exserted, 1.5-3 mm long, alternating with fleshy, undulate segments of disk; disk fleshy, undulate-lobed, to ca 1 mm. wide, the width of one side less than width of clump of styles; styles usually 4 or 5 (rarely 3), much shorter than stamens at anthesis; stigmas linear, on dorsal surface of style near apex. Fruits oblong to obovoid, 2.5-3 cm long, yellow to orange at maturity; mesocarp, to 6 mm thick, fleshy, sweet and tasty; endocarps obovoid, 2-2.5 cm long, hard, covered by a tough, coarse, fibrous matrix. Croat 10751, 14090. Frequent in the forest. Flowering principally from March to June (rarely earlier), but most abundantly in April and May. The fruits are mature from July to October, mostly in August and September. Leaves fall during the early part of the dry season, beginning in December and January, and grow in again before flowering commences. The species is reportedly dioecious in Mexico (Pennington & Sarukhan, 1968) and monoecious in Costa Rica (Bawa & Opler, 1975). In Panama, flowers are apparently mostly bisexual with some pistillate flowers also. Throughout tropical America; introduced in tropical Africa and East Indies. In Panama, a typical component of tropical moist forest (Tosi, 1971), known principally from the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Colon, Panama, and Darien; known also from tropical dry forest in Coclé. from premontane moist forest in Panama (Farfan Beach), and from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui (Progreso). See Figs. 329 and 330.