Trees, 10-20 m high; branches terete, glabrous, light to dark brown, incon-spicuously lenticellate. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, petiolate, the petioles terete, becoming canaliculate adaxially on the apical '/2 of the petiole, (3-)5.5-8.5 cm long, with fine appressed trichomes; leaflets elliptic to slightly obovate, 10.0-20.5 cm long, 5.0-8.2 cm wide, short acuminate at the apex and tapering to a cuneate base, chartaceous with numerous tiny glands on both the surfaces, glabrous, pinnately veined, the veins 14-18 pairs, moderately ascending, anastomosing. Inflorescence a narrow panicle 2-3 times longer than broad, terminal; peduncles 6-8 cm long, striate, finely puberulent, bracteate, the bracts ovate, acute, 0.5-1.0 mm long. Flowers (Colombian material) tiny, inconspicuous, 5-merous; buds globose, 1.8-2.2 mm long; calyx lobes imbricate, broadly ovate, acute at the tip, densely hairy, 0.7-1.0 mm long; corolla lobes slightly imbricate, the lobes oblong to elliptic, 1.8-2.0 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide, obtuse at the tip, pellucid punctate; stamens erect, the filaments somewhat flattened, 1.8-2.2 mm long, the anthers 0.2-0.4 mm long, cordate, lobed to the middle; ovary enclosed in a multi-lobed disc, the ovary composed of 5 carpels, the ovules 2 per carpel, the style 1, nar-rowly cylindric, 1.5-2.0 mm long, the stigma 1, terminal, spatulate. Capsules 5-locular, urceolate, flattened on the apex, 1.9-2.5 cm high, 2.5-3.1 cm across, to 5 cm across following dehiscence, coriaceous, becoming indurate at maturity, each segment conspicuously beaked near the apex, the beak large, stout, to 1.2 cm long, sometimes with a smaller, secondary beak located at midway to near the base of each segment; endocarp cartilaginous, 2-winged, the wings oblong, spreading, rounded at the tip, partly enclosing the seed at the base; seed ovoid, 10-12 mm long, oblique at the base, obtuse to acute at the tip, flattened on 1 side, drying shiny brown.
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