Lund., Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 6:35.1941
Arcabú, Tachuelo
Dioecious tree, 13-30 m tall, to almost 1 m dbh;trunk of younger trees armed, the prickles large, corky,horizontally flattened, to ca 5 cm wide and 1 cm thick(somewhat rounded and numerous on juvenile plants), generallydeciduous on older trees, the scar often visible; branches andbranchlets with ribs extending downward from petioles and withoccasional small conical prickles; outer bark thin, brown, sparsely stellate-pubescent. Leaves pinnate,generally imparipinnate or the terminal pair bearing the scar of anaborted terminal leaflet (occasionally with 1 leaflet merelyappearing terminal), 16-67 cm long; petioles mostly 5-10 cm long,sparsely stellate-pubescent; leaflets 8-20 (26), suboppositeto alternate, oblong-elliptic to oblong, abruptly acuminate, acuteto obtuse at base, 4.5-16 (21) cm long, 1.5-5.5 (7) cm wide,sessile or obscurely petiolulate, pellucid-punctate, ± entireand revolute on margin, dark green, shiny and sparsely stellate-pubescentabove, duller and densely pubescent below, the trichomes stellate,mostly sessile; juvenile leaves as much as 1.5 m long, the leaflets22 cm long and 7.5 cm wide. Panicles terminal and upper-axillary,15-33 cm long, widely branched, the branches and pedicels sparselystellate-pubescent; branchlets scaly, the scales deltoid, ciliate;pedicels to 1.5 mm long; calyx triangular, ciliate; flowersunisexual, greenish-white,5-lobed, to 3.7 mm wide; petals ± elliptic, acute,imbricate., 1.4-3.3 mm. long; stamens 5,alternate, broadly exserted, to 4 mm long in staminate flowers,shorter and sterile in pistillate flowers; ovary 5-lobed,pubescent; style short; stigma simple. Fruits of 1 or 2 globosefollicles-, 3.5-5 mm long, punctate-verrucose;seeds dark brown, shiny, somewhat shorter than follicle. Croat12497.
Occasional in the forest, though sometimeslocally abundant in older forest. Flowers from August to October; individual plants may flowerfor at least a month. The fruits mature from January to March.Leaves fall off in the dry season, but the new ones all grow outbefore flowering begins.
Southern Mexico to Panama and possibly Colombia.In Panama' known from tropical moist forest in the CanalZone, Colon, and San Blas, from premontane wet forest in Colon(Santa Rita Ridge), and from tropical wet forest in Colon(Icacal).
See Fig. 296.
