Standl., Contr. Arnold Arbor. 5:95, pl.14.1933

Woody liana; stems 6-ribbed or grooved,long-hispid, with milky sap; tendrils axillary, forked, bracteateat fork, the arms watchspring-like; pubescence brown-pilose allover but with upper leaf surface between veins glabrous. Leavespinnate; stipules paired, lanceolate, to 3 cm long, ciliate;petioles 1-12 cm long; rachis winged; leaflets 5, ± ellipticor elliptic-oblong, acuminate, acute at base (lower pair oftenrounded or subcordate), 2.5-22 cm long, 1.5-11 cm wide, remotelydentate. Thyrses short, glomer­ulate, in leaf axils or borneon tendrils; flowers white, ca 5 mm long; sepals 5, oblong,glabrous; petals 4, oblong to obovate, acute, the scales cathree-fourths as long as petals, their crests yellow, slender,pointed, the scales of the anterior petals held together by villoustrichomes, the glands of the anterior petals slender, erect,flattened; stamens 8; filaments ± glabrous, fused into a tubeat base; ovary 3-angled, glabrous; styles 3, longer than staminaltube. Capsules reddish, suborbicular,1-1.5 cm long, 3-celled,3-winged, glabrous; seeds 1 or 2, oblong-obovate, dark, shiny,covered at base with a white aril. Croat 4000a, 8723.

Occasional, in the forest. Flowers mostly in thelate dry season (March and April). Most fruits mature in the

late rainy season, some in the early dryseason.

The flowers and fruits usually occur on leaflessstems near the ground.

Known only from Panama. In Panama, known from tropical moistforest in the Canal Zone and Bocas del Toro and from premontanerain forest in Colón and Panama (Cerro Jefe).