Descripción: Árbol o arbusto de 2 a 7 m de alto. Tronco con la corteza exterior blanca. Ramitas robustas y generalmente glabras. Hojas simples y alternas, de 11-34 x 3-12 cm, obovadas o elípticas, con ápice redondeado, agudo o acuminado, bordes enteros y base decurrente. Las hojas son glabras y presentan un olor fuerte y penetrante al estrujarlas. Pecíolo de 1-3.5 cm de largo. Inflorescencias en racimos axilares. Flores blancas. Frutos en bayas ovoides, de 0.5-1 cm de largo, verdes, tornándose morados al madurar.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en bosques húmedos o muy húmedos. En Panamá se encuentra en las provincias de Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Los Santos, Panamá y Veraguas. Florece y fructifica de febrero a julio.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK ery2ma Erythroxylum macrophyllum LK2 , pero E. macrophyllum tiene estípulas de color marrón castaño y los frutos son rojos al madurar.

Usos: El tallo, las hojas y los frutos, se usan en baños para disminuir las fiebres.

C. baenitzii Ling. Shrub or small tree, to 8 (10) m tall; outer bark thin; young stems green, sparsely crisp-pubescent, glabrous in age. Leaves alternate; petioles to 1.3 (2.5) cm long, glabrous; blades narrowly elliptic to obovate-elliptic, acuminate, gradually tapered to an acute or rounded base, 12-25 (35) cm long, 3.5-8 (12) cm wide, +/- glabrous. Racemes short, axillary, fasciculate; peduncles crisp-pubescent, bracteate; flowers 5-parted, usually many, often on leafless stems; calyx cupular, 2-3.5 (4) mm long; corolla salverform, ca 1.5 cm long, the tube greenish, constricted just below lobes, the lobes white, spreading at anthesis, 4-5 mm long; stamens included; filaments fused to tube in basal two-thirds, pubescent near their point of fusion, turned inward below anthers; style slightly longer than stamens; stigma capitate, held just above anthers; nectary inconspicuous at base of ovary. Berries ellipsoid, 6-10 mm long, green becoming whitish then light violet and finally dark violet when mature; mesocarp thin, fleshy, white; seeds 1 or 2, minutely papillate. Croat 14568. Occasional, in the forest. Flowering from November to June, mostly in the dry season, from February to April. The fruits mature in the early rainy season, from May to August. Guatemala to Venezuela. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Los Santos, and Darien, from premontane wet forest in Colón and Chiriqui, from tropical wet forest in Colón, and from lower montane wet forest in Chiriqui. See Fig. 480.

Bocas Species Database

Characteristics: Arbolito de ± 2.5 m, con numerosas cicatrices de inflorescencias a lo largo del tronco del tronco y ramas principales. Botones florales verdes. Frutos verdes. Tree ± 2.5 m, with numerous scars of inflorescences along the trunk of the trunk and main branches. Green buds. Green fruits.