Description: A shrub or small tree with a straight trunk typically branched at a fairly low height. Small branches are flattened and squarish in cross-section. Leaves are simple and opposite, with fine teeth. They are finely pubescent, and feel like a soft towel. Crushed leaves, especially young ones, have a strong odor, somewhat citrus-like, but musky; it's quite different from other plant odors.

Reproduction: The flowers resemble tiny mushrooms growing out of the trunk or branches. They are flat caps on short stalks, with a small opening on top, initially green but yellow when they mature during February, March, or April. Crushed flowers produce the same odor as the leaves, but even more powerful. The fruit is a small globular berry consisting of many tiny sections, each with a small seed having an edible aril. They are produced from May to October.

Distribution: Widespread in forest understory in lowland forests near the Canal, old-growth as well as secondary, but usually not very common. It is quite common, though, along the outer section of Pipeline Road, growing immediately adjacent to the road.

Similar Species: Few species have toothed, opposite leaves. See LK cassel Cassipourea elliptica, LK2 or LK mollda Mollinedia dariensis, LK2 but both have inconspicuous teeth and odorless leaves without pubescense. There are other Siparuna in the area, but most are restricted to wet forests and cloud forests; LK sipagu S. guianensis LK2 is known on Barro Colorado, but nowhere else in the area.

Uses: The leaves are used medicinally, for example for making a tea that is said to be aphrodisiac.

Descripción: Árbol de 5 a 8 m de alto. Tronco ramificado a partir de la base. Ramitas terminales cuadrangulares. Hojas simples y opuestas, de 10-30 x 5-15 cm, obovadas a oblanceoladas, con ápice agudo, bordes dentados o aserrados y base decurrente. Las hojas se encuentran cubiertas de pelos y son de consistencia aterciopelada al tacto, al romperlas despiden un olor muy fuerte y penetrante. Pecíolo de 1.5-3 cm de largo y ligeramente acanalado en la parte superior. La especie es dioica. Flores verdes o amarillas, con 4-8 tépalos fusionados, los cuales forman un receptáculo plano con una especie de poro en el centro de la flor. Frutos agregados y encerrados en un hipanto globoso, de 1.5-2.5 cm de diámetro.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en bosques húmedos o muy húmedos. Común y ampliamente distribuida en bosques húmedos y nubosos de todo el país. Florece y fructifica de febrero a octubre. Las semillas son dispersadas por los animales.

Especies Parecidas: Existen varias especies del género Siparuna que tienen flores y frutos muy parecidos, pero Siparuna pauciflora se reconoce por sus hojas cubiertas de pelos y de consistencia aterciopelada al tacto.

Usos: Las hojas y brotes nuevos se emplean para fabricar un té medicinal, al cual se le atribuyen propiedades afrodisiacas. También se utilizan en baños y se colocan sobre la frente de las personas para aliviar los espasmos y dolores de cabeza.

Dioecious shrub or small tree, usually 4-6 (10) m tall, shortly stellate-pubescent all over, densely so except on upper leaf surfaces; upper branches quadrangular or flattened; sap aromatic. Leaves opposite; petioles 1.5-4 cm long; blades broadly elliptic-obovate (may be narrowly elliptic elsewhere), generally short-acuminate to acute at apex, +/- obtuse at base, 15-32 cm long, 7-17 cm wide, thin, obscurely pellucid-punctate, strigillose above but with densely stellate-pubescent veins, densely stellate-pubescent below; lateral veins in 12-15 pairs. Flowers usually many, in cymes congested in axils or borne on stems below leaves; pedicels 2-10 mm long; tepals 4-8, connate to form a broadly flattened annulus with a small central orifice, pale orange at anthesis; staminate inflorescences often short-pedunculate; stamens usually 12-30, ca 1 mm long, in several series, the filaments flattened laterally; pistillate inflorescences +/- sessile, the styles many, short, densely papillate, exserted through the central orifice. Fruits drupaceous, aggregate, enclosed in the hypanthium, globose, with a crateriform depression at apex, 1.5-2 cm diam, light green at maturity, bursting irregularly to display usually fewer than 10 seeds; seeds +/- oblong, verrucose, enveloped at least on one side by a thin, fleshy, rose-colored aril. Croat 6284, 13216. Frequent in the forest. Flowers regularly from January to April. The fruits may reach full size by June, but do not mature until September or October.

Bocas Species Database

Characteristics: Arbusto de 4 m. Flores verdes. Frutos Flores verdes. Frutos amarillos. Bush 4 m. Green flowers. Flowers Fruits green. Yellow fruits.