Shrub or small tree to 15 m, usually epiphytic; latex white; stems drying sharply angled. Leaves obovate or obcuneate, apically rounded, basally cuneate, mostly 8-12 cm long, 6-7 cm wide, the costa elevated beneath almost to the apex, the lateral nerves ascending, straight, parallel, distinct beneath, ill defined above, drying discolorous, above slightly shiny, beneath dull and somewhat yel-lowish; petiole wanting, the leaf base slightly clasping the stem. Inflorescence a terminal panicle often exceeding the leaves; peduncle and branches angled, the peduncle naked for 5-8 cm; bracts cucullate, ca. 5 mm long, conspicuous; ped-icels strongly angled, 2-6 mm long but appearing obsolete; sepals 6, decussate, broad, 4-6 mm long, rotund; petals 4, decussate, broadly ovate, white or bluish, often purplish at the base or maculate above; in pistillate flowers the staminodes concrescent into a thick cylindrical ring; ovary cylindrical, stigmas 7-8. Fruit (Cuatrecasas) narrowly cylindrical or ellipsoidal, 3-3.5 cm long, longitudinally grooved, the stigmas subsessile; seeds very numerous, linear elliptical, the raphe linear, the membranous laciniate aril 3-3.2 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, red.
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