Seem., Bot. Voy. Herald 93. 1853 Tree, to 8 m tall; trunk to 16 cm dbh, often in clumps of 2 or more of various sizes, sometimes with sucker shoots at base; bark smooth; younger branches and inflorescences densely rufous-tomentose, otherwise glabrous to inconspicuously puberulent. Leaves pinnate, to 45 cm long; petiolules 3-15 mm long, pulvinate at base; leaflets 3-7, +/- elliptic, acuminate, sometimes weakly falcate, acute to obtuse at base (sometimes inequilateral), 4-30 cm long, 1.7-12 cm wide, the axils of veins sometimes weakly tufted below. Inflorescences axillary, l-3 per axil, to 12 cm long; pedicels very short, subtended by tiny bracts; flowers white, 5-parted, 4-5 mm wide, with a faint sweet aroma, in short clusters of 3 each, most parts villous; calyx cupular, divided to near base, the lobes ovate, erect; petals obovate to rhombic, rounded to acute, to 2.7 mm long, the scales nearly as long as or longer than petal, +/- emarginate, fused to petal along both margins and forming a pocket; ovary +/- rounded; stigmas 3 in bisexual flowers, lacking in staminate flowers. Capsules few or many in dense globose clusters, 3-6-lobed, broader than long, to 2 cm wide, densely tomentose, bright red-orange to red at maturity at least at apex; valves 3, densely silky-pubescent inside; seeds 2 or 3, ovoid or subglobose, ca 1 cm long, 8-10 cm wide, shiny, black, at least the apex exserted from the open capsules, the aril fleshy, white, +/- acidy but tasty. Croat 5080, 13481. Common at least in some areas of the island. Flowers from the late rainy season throughout the dry season (November to May), with the fruits maturing mostly from March through June. Panama and northern Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Darién, from tropical dry forest in Panama (Taboga Island), and from premontane wet forest in Panama.