Tree 4-12 m tall, 8.5-38 cm dbh, the pubescence uncinate; branches terete, 3-7 mm thick, glabrous; twigs strigose and uncinate, soon glabrous, drying striate sulcate. Leaves trifoliolate 6-16 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, ovate, the apex abruptly narrowed to an acumen, 1-2 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, acute or obtuse, often mucronate, the base rotund to obtuse, glabrous both sides or sparsely pubescent on the midrib, light green, concolorous, membranous; veins impressed above, conspicuously raised below, the lateral veins mostly 7-10, alternate to subpaired, oblique, straight, the tips arcuate, minor veins conspicuously reticulate; petiole long, 3-9 cm, glabrous or glabrate, striate, twisting; rachis 1-4 cm long, as pet-ioles; stipules caducous, 5-7 mm long, lanceolate, acute, striate, pubescence uncinate and sparsely strigose, apically ciliate; stipels caducous, 4-7 mm, subu-late (not seen in Panamanian material); petiolules 5-7(9) mm long, weakly 4-angled, rugose, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary or at denuded nodes, contract-ed, to 1 cm long, several flowered; pedicels 3-5 mm long, usually paired, slender, pubescence uncinate, becoming 7-9 mm long in fruit, woody, 2-3 mm thick; bracts 3-5 mm long, lanceolate to ovate, striate, pubescence uncinate; bracteoles 3-5 mm long; inserted 0.5-2 mm below the calyx, deciduous, lanceolate, striate, pubescence uncinate. Flowers showy, chasmogamous, white or purple; calyx tube 7-12 mm long, 3-5 mm wide near the base to 5-7 mm wide at the throat, nervate, glabrate, pubescent, the lobes broadly deltoid, the apex acute to acu-minate, 2-3 mm long, occasionally to 5 mm long with subulate apex, the ventral lobe subulate, uncinate ciliolate, becoming scarious, 3-6 mm; standard 2.5-4 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, white or deep blue, lilac, to purple with darker purple veins at the center, pubescence uncinate, the claw ca. 7-8 mm, the wings white, ex-tending beyond the keel 4-6 mm, oblong with expanded apex, 12-18 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, the claw 8-12 mm long, the keel white, falcate, 8-10 mm across, 4-5 mm wide, the claw 14-21 mm long; staminal column nearly straight, 18-21 mm long, the free filaments 2-3 mm long, incurved, the anthers 1-1.4 mm long, ca. 0.6 mm wide; gynophore ca. 1 mm long, uncinate pubescent, the ovary 9-15 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, densely white, appressed, sericeous, the style 11-13 mm long, the stigma globular. Fruit yellow green, stipitate, usually 1 per node, coriaceous, compressed, swollen around the seeds, depressed between, pubes-cence uncinate and sparse pilose, the valves straight, (8)11-20 cm long, 16-20 mm wide, twisting 1-1.5 times at maturity, the beak 5-9 mm, the stipe brown, included within calyx, 10-12 mm long, 2-3 mm thick, the expanded tip to 5-7 mm thick, weakly twisted, pilose and uncinate; seeds brown to dark brown, compressed, nearly orbicular, 7-10 mm long, 8-10 mm wide, 2-3 mm thick, smooth, glabrous, 7-12 per pod.
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