Dioecious tree, to 40 m tall; trunk usually less than 1 m dbh, buttressed, the buttresses sometimes continuous with exposed lateral roots extending over ground surface as much as 30 m from tree; bark reddish-brown and often weathered (appearing chewed up) at base; all younger parts densely lepidote. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules lanceolate, to 1.5 cm long, deciduous; petioles 3-10 cm long; blades broadly elliptic, abruptly acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 7-23 (30) cm long, 4-12 (19) cm wide; juvenile blades 30 cm long and 16 cm wide, ovate-cordate, inflated and rounded at base, usually inhabited by ants, the stipules enlarged. Panicles upper-axillary, the branches densely lepidote, the staminate panicles to 17 cm long, the pistillate ones to 10 cm long and 15 cm broad; main axis with bracts 5-15 mm long, the lateral axis with minute bracts; flowers apetalous, greenish-white; staminate flowers on minute pedicels; calyx cupuliform, shallowly 3- or 4-lobed, less than 1 mm high; disk nearly equaling calyx; stamens 4; filaments to 1 mm long, free; anthers with an enlarged connective with 2 anther sacs pendent and divergent at anthesis; pistillate flowers on stout pedicels 1-2 mm long; calyx cupuliform, shallowly 3- or 4-lobed, to 0.8 mm high; disk smaller than calyx; ovary ovoid, to 1 mm high; styles 3, obsolete; stigmas minute, bifid. Drupes green turning red then purple-black at maturity, subglobose, ca 3 mm diam, sweet; seed 1, ellipsoid, ca 2 mm long, brown. Croat 8403,14964. Panama to the Guianas. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Panama, and Darien, from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui, and from tropical wet forest in Colón.