Shrubs or trees, to 10 m tall, the branchlets terete, drying yellow grey, gla-brous, the nodes usually-well spaced. Leaves salicoid, often falcate, 5-17 cm long, 1.8-5.0 cm wide, the larger blades regularly 3 times longer than wide, tapering acutely or deltoidly at the apex, acuminate, the acumen attenuate, usu-ally narrowly falcate, to 1.5 cm long, 0.1-0.3 cm wide in the middle, acute at the base, slightly inequilateral, the costa scarcely prominulous above, rimose, sub-plane beneath, the lateral veins 9-12, prominulous, at first strict and then arcuate, or strict to the margin, the intervenal areas markedly reticulate, papyraceous, concolorous, glabrous; petioles to 1 cm long when present, narrowly alate; sti-pules connate, often persistent, deltoid or compressed rotund, wider than long, 2.5-3.0 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, coriaceous, glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, to 5 cm long, to 5 cm wide, cymose paniculate, the peduncle to 2 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide, glabrous, the branches 3-4, the lowermost often paired, opposite or subopposite, divergent or ascending, to 1.5 cm long, the terminal cymules with 3-6 flowers; lowermost bracts rarely persisting, narrowly elliptic, to 15 mm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide, glabrous. Flowers with the pedicels 1.5-3.0 mm long, glabrous; hypanthium 0.5-1.2 mm long, smooth, glabrous, the calycine cup and teeth to 2.5 mm long, the cup with a few appressed glands, coriaceous, the teeth 4, sub-ulate, to 0.7 mm long; corolla white, the tube narrowly cylindrical, to 9 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide, glabrous, stiffly petaloid, the lobes 4, lanceolate, to 7.5 mm long, tapering narrowly toward the apex; stamens 4, the anthers narrowly oblong, 4-5 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm wide, obtuse, caudate at the base, dorsifixed, the filaments ca. 1 mm long, attached near the middle or at the upper ?3 of the tube; stigmas 2, subulate, to 2.2 mm long, the style 10-13 mm long. Fruits scarcely pedicellate, oblong, to 1.7 cm long, ca. 1 cm wide, smooth, glabrous, white, drying yellow, spongy within, the persistent calycine cup small, to 1.5 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide. Coussarea loftonii is known only from Panama. It was originally described from flowering material, but a recent collection, Lewis & Dressler 6567, has fruits which are obviously those of a Coussarea and not of Faramea. Nee 9297 de-scribes the flowers as very fragrant.
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