Description: A small to medium-sized tree of forest understory, typically with an irregular trunk and long, hanging branches. The bark is dark gray. Leaves are fairly large, simple, alternate, toothed, with pubescence; branchlets are also pubescent. The stipule encircles the branchlet at the tip, falls readily to leave a scar which is evident as a ring around the branch at the base of each leaf. Slashing bark or breaking leaves produces dripping latex that is white or cream-colored.

Reproduction: Tiny flowers are in small, dense heads at the base of leaves, produced from January to April. The fruit has the same form - an aggregate of tiny sections of pulp that are green then yellow or orangish. Mature from May to August.

Distribution: One of the dominant subcanopy trees of mature forest in the wetter parts of the Canal area, in the north part of Soberania, Sherman, and Santa Rita. Much less common at Barro Colorado and around Gamboa. Not typically seen in open areas or along forest edge, but some grow along the outer part of Pipeline Rd.

Similar Species: Readily recognized as Moraceae by the encircling stipule-scars and latex. The other toothed Moraceae, such as LK soraaf Sorocea affinis LK2 and LK maclti Chlorophora tinctoria, LK2 have smaller leaves, while most with larger leaves LK castel (Castilla elastica LK2 or LK maquco Maquira costaricana) LK2 don't have teeth. LK olmeas Trophis caucana LK2 has similarly-sized leaves with teeth, but they are sandpapery on the undersize and curve forward.

Descripción: Árbol de 5 a 20 m de alto. Tronco irregular con ramas largas y colgantes. Corteza exterior negra, internamente es amarilla. Ramitas terminales cubiertas de pelos. El desprendimiento de cualquier parte de la planta produce el flujo de una savia lechosa. Hojas simples y alternas, de 6-40 x 4-20 cm, oblongas o elípticas, con ápice acuminado, bordes dentados y base redondeada. Las hojas son asimétricas, cubiertas de pelos por el envés y ligeramente ásperas al tacto. Estípulas deciduas, dejando cicatrices anulares a lo largo de las ramitas. Pecíolo de 0.3-0.5 cm de largo. La especie es dioica. Flores verdes o amarillentas. Frutos en drupas agregadas, de 1-2 cm de diámetro, verdes, tornándose rojos 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, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Panamá y la comarca de Guna Yala. Común en bosques de la parte central y del Caribe en Panamá, pero raro o ausente en otros lugares. Crece en hondonadas y en los márgenes de las quebradas y riachuelos. Florece y fructifica durante todo el año, principalmente de agosto a enero. Las flores son visitadas por insectos.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK castel Castilla elastica LK2 , pero en C. elastica las hojas tienen los bordes finamente dentados y la base cordada o subcordada, en P. xanthochyma las hojas son asimétricas con bordes dentados y base redondeada.

Usos: El tallo, las hojas y la savia lechosa se emplean en la medicina popular.

Dioecious or monoecious tree, to 10 (35) m tall, usually to ca 15 cm dbh; branches slender, slightly flexuous, conspicuously but sparsely hispidulous (except densely so when young), sometimes becoming glabrate, the trichomes usually acropetal; sap yellowish, turning brown or reddish. Leaves alternate, distichous; petioles 3-5 mm long; petioles and midrib of blades pubescent like the stems; stipules fully amplexicaul, lanceolate, 5-10 mm long, densely hispidulous; blades oblong-elliptic to narrowly obovate, abruptly and narrowly long-acuminate to subcuspidate at apex, obtuse to rounded at base, (6)16-28 (48) cm long, (2) 4-10 (20) cm wide, glabrate on upper surface except on midrib, glabrate to sparsely hispidulous on smaller veins below, densely hispidulous on midrib below, the lateral veins in 7-23 pairs, the margins entire to +/- coarsely undulate-serrate toward apex. Inflorescences axillary, solitary or clustered, involucrate, discoid; staminate inflorescences 3-6 (10) mm diam, the peduncles 1-3 (6) mm long, the bracts ca 25-60, deltoid to ovate, acute at apex, in 4-8 series, the flowers 10 or more; perianth to 1.1 mm long; tepals 4, free, cucullate, obtuse, yellowish-puberulent; stamens 4, free, nearly included; anthers broadly oval. Pistillate inflorescences solitary or accompanied by staminate ones, 4-15 mm diam, subsessile to pedunculate, the peduncles slender, to 3 mm long, the bracts 20-90, deltoid to ovate, in 4-10 series, the flowers numerous, all fertile; perianth entire to 4-lobed, to ca 2 mm long, hispidulous, accrescent and +/- pulpy in fruit but essentially free; ovary superior to subinferior; style central; stigma lobes short, broad. Fruiting heads subsessile, l-2 cm diam; fruits ovoid, orange, hispidulous, to ca 9 mm long, together forming a weakly united syncarp. Knight 3502, 1510. Apparently rare; known only from the forest near Standley Trail 1000 and along AMNH Trail. Seasonality uncertain. Flowers principally from August to April. The fruits mature mostly from January to June. Costa Rica to Peru. In Panama, restricted to the Atlantic Coast; known from wetter areas of tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Bocas del Toro, from premontane wet forest in the Canal Zone (Pipeline Road) and Bocas del Toro (Punta Peña, vicinity of Chiriquicito), and from tropical wet forest in Colón (Portobelo) and Panama.

Bocas Species Database

Characteristics: Tree