Description: A tall tree with a large trunk, often with irregular buttresses, often leaning some and usually not cylindrical, but somewhat fluted. Branching is irregular, sometimes near the ground, sometimes not. Leaves are alternate, regularly spaced only branches, and have three principle veins emerging from the leaf base. Underside of the leaf is conspicuously brown, due to fine brown hairs, and this is easy to see in even the largest canopy individuals. In very small saplings, the underside can be whitish rather than brown.

Reproduction: Produces whitish-yellow flowers, about 1-2 cm across, in December and January. The petals are narrow and shorter than the stamen, and they often fall off, so in many flowers, there appear to be no petals, instead just a ball of many stamen. A number of bird species, such as the Tennessee warblers and orchard orioles, visit the flowers for nectar. Fruits are small green pods, produced shortly after flowering.

Distribution: One of the most numerous species of the area. It is most abundant in secondary forest and along forest edges, and is one of the dominant species of secondary forests in all areas on the Pacific half of the Canal area. Abundant in Parque Metropolitano, abundant around Gamboa. It sometimes grows in cities or farmland, but also occurs in sparsely old growth forest, where it can be a large tree close to a meter in diameter, with a large crown; in the forest, it is rare as a sapling, only appearing in natural tree-fall clearings. North of Gamboa, it becomes less abundant, but is still on Barro Colorado, Pipeline Rd., and at Fort Sherman. It is not seen in the wet slopes of Santa Rita, or montane forests.

Similar Species: Only one other species has such conspicuously brown leaf undersides, LK chr2ca Chrysophyllum cainito, LK2 but the leaves are very different. Luehea has palmate venation, with clear secondary veins, whereas secondary veins in Chrysophyllum are barely visible. Tall canopy trees can be confused if the leaves cannot be seen clearly, but fortunately both species usually drop enough leaves on the ground to be readily found. Other species of the area with red leaf undersides also differ in venation or leaf arrangement from Luehea (see vismma Vismia macrophylla and are not tall trees. Learn to recognize the congener luehse Luehea speciosa, which has leaves exactly like L. seemannii, but white instead of brown underneath. Very young leaves of seemannii can appear whitish, before the deeper brown color develops.

Descripción: Árbol de 10 a 30 m de alto. Tronco con raíces tablares bien desarrolladas en la base. Corteza exterior crema o amarillenta y con lenticelas negras. Ramitas terminales cilíndricas y con pelos ferruginosos. Hojas simples y alternas, de 5-30 x 3-15 cm, oblongas o elípticas, con ápice acuminado, bordes dentados y base redondeada o ligeramente cordada. Las hojas son verdes en el haz y marrón castaño por el envés, presentan tres nervaduras que salen a partir de la base y numerosas nervaduras secundarias que salen perpendiculares a estas, formando un patrón tipo escalera. Estípulas deciduas, a veces persistentes en los extremos apicales de las ramitas. Pecíolo de 0.5-1 cm de largo. Flores blancas. Frutos en cápsulas leñosas, de 1.5-3 cm de largo, con cinco surcos longitudinales profundos, verdes o marrón, tornándose negros y dehiscentes al madurar. Semillas aladas y pequeñas.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en lugares secos o húmedos. Común y ampliamente distribuido en bosques secundarios de Panamá. Deja caer sus hojas parcialmente durante la estación seca, pero las repone a inicios de la estación lluviosa. Florece y fructifica de noviembre a junio. Las flores son visitadas por abejas y otros insectos. Las semillas son dispersadas por el viento.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK luehsp Luehea speciosa LK2 , pero en L. speciosa las hojas tienen el envés blanco o gris y las flores y los frutos son de mayor tamaño. Por los patrones de las nervaduras y el envés de la hoja de color marrón castaño, L. seemannii se puede confundir con plantas del género Miconia (Melastomataceae), pero en Miconia las hojas son opuestas.

Usos: La madera es empleada en la elaboración de cajones, tableros, aglomerados, leña y pulpa para papel. La fibra de la corteza es fuerte y se usa como cuerda para amarrar. Los apicultores lo utilizan como una planta melífera debido a que las abejas colectan el néctar de las flores.

Tree, usually 15-30 m tall; trunk to 125 cm dbh, the buttresses 1-3 m high, to 4 m wide at base, usually continuous with ribs on trunk; outer bark thin, peeling easily, with prominent, round, evenly distributed lenticels; inner bark with lighter streaks oozing thick, clear, sometimes sweet sap; stems somewhat flexuous, especially near apex; branchlets, petioles, and inflorescence branches bearing dense, ferruginous, stellate, tomentose pubescence. Petioles ca 1 cm long, thick; blades mostly oblong-elliptic, somewhat asymmetrical (especially at base), acuminate at apex, rounded to subcordate at base, 5-40 cm long, 2-15 cm wide, densely brown-arachnoid below, very sparsely so and shiny above, the margins irregularly serrate especially above middle. Thyrses terminal or upper-axillary, 2-8 (16) cm long; flowers 5-parted, enclosed by bracteoles in bud, to 2.5 cm wide when open, the bracteoles 9, densely pubescent, deciduous; sepals free, spreading, ca 12 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, densely pubescent outside; petals spatulate, white or yellow, +/- equaling sepals, pubescent near base; stamens many, ca 9 mm long, in 5 clusters each united at the base, slightly shorter than style; style thick, capitate, ca 5 mm long; stigma obscurely 5-lobed. Capsules +/- elliptic to obovoid, deeply 5-grooved, to 2.5 cm long, densely brown-tomentulose; seeds many, 6-10 mm long, winged. Croat 7327, 7996. Common in the young forest. Flowers in the late rainy and early dry seasons. The fruits mature late in the dry season and early in the rainy season (March to July). Leaves are gradually lost in the dry season and are renewed sometime from April to July.

Bocas Species Database

Characteristics: Tree that reaches from 10 to 30 m in height. It can be recognized by its simple and alternate leaves, with topside green and underside brown. White flowers. Fruits are in woody capsules that turn black in color when ripe.