Psychotria carthagenensis Jacq.

Shrubs to 4 m tall, the branchlets terete, smooth, glabrous, the nodes often proximate, the pith present or absent, if present, often drying dark. Leaves nar-rowly obovate lanceolate or obovate oblong, occasionally inequilateral, 5-13 cm long, 1.8-4.5 cm wide, tapering obtusely or deltoidly toward the apex, acute or vaguely acuminate, the acumen usually widely deltoid and obtuse, basally atten-uate acute, the costa slender, plane or grooved above, prominulous beneath, papyraceous, glabrous, often drying red, the lateral veins 8-9, widely arcuate; petioles 0.2-1.0 cm long, the blade lightly decurrent; stipules caducous, oblong to ovate triangular, to 8 mm long, obtuse, brown, glabrous. Inflorescences ter-minal, solitary, paniculate, usually widely ovate rotund in outline, to 9 cm long, to 5.5 cm wide, glabrous, the peduncles wiry, angular, usually stiff, to 5 cm long, to 0.15 cm wide, the primary branches 4-nate, occasionally opposite, radiate and usually ascending, to 1.5 cm long, the next pair above opposite or 4-nate, the rachis then terminated by several short branches; bracts ovate triangular, to 1 mm long. Flowers subsessile; hypanthium oblong rotund, ca. 1 mm long, minutely puberulent, the calycine cup 0.3 mm long, carnose with a few small glands within, puberulent marginally, the teeth 5, scarcely distinguishable; corolla white, ca. 5 mm long, the tube subcampanulate, ca. 3 mm long, constricted below the middle, glabrous or puberulent externally, bearded above the middle within, the lobes 5, oblong, ca. 2 mm long, 1.2 mm wide, carnose petaloid; stamens 5, the anthers oblong, ca. 0.8 mm long, dorsifixed near the base, the filaments ca. 2 mm long, attached ca. 1 mm below the mouth; style 4 mm long, dilated above the middle, the stigmas crassate, ca. 1 mm long; ovarian disc ca. 0.3 mm long, annular. Fruits to 5.5 mm long, rounded at the apex and base, drying red, glabrous, the raphides abundant, 10-ribbed, the ribs rounded, 10-sulcate, the calycine cup persisting, scarcely evident; pedicels to 2 mm, oblong.

Shaded sites in seasonally dry deciduous forest formations of Guanacaste and northernmost Alajuela Province in Costa Rica, usually at elevations from 5 -200 metres, occasionally to 1,400 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings.