Shrub, usually 1-2.5 m tall; most parts +/- densely stellate-pubescent. Petioles mostly 2-8 cm long; blades ovate, 3-5-lobed, acuminate at apex, obtuse to rounded or subcordate at base, 5-12 cm long, 4-10 cm wide, irregularly serrate, the serrations often glandular; palmate veins at base 3-5. Cymes condensed, upper-axillary; sepals reddish-brown, narrowly oblong, about 5 mm long, pubescent outside, with a short apiculum near apex, recurved after anthesis; petals lacking; stamens 5 or 15, (rarely 10), yellow, ca 3 mm long, alternately long and short, the longer ones about the height of the style; anthers not shedding pollen in bud; style shorter than stamens in bud; stigmas 2 (3), slender, open, later elongating to height of tallest stamens, mostly or completely closed when anthers shed pollen; ovary with uncinate trichomes. Capsules ellipsoid, to 1 cm long (including spines), covered with long, uncinate spines; seeds 2 per cell, pyriform, ca 2 mm long. Croat 7476, 7778. Throughout tropical America. In Panama, widespread and ecologically variable; known from tropical moist forest throughout the country, as well as from tropical dry forest in Panamd and Coclé from premontane moist forest in the Canal Zone, Los Santos, and Panama, from premontane wet forest in Colón, Coclé and Panamd, and from tropical wet forest in Darien. See Fig. 361.
