Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth.

Tree 5-15(-20) m tall, trunk grooved lengthwise, to 25 cm diam. Branchlets terete, slightly striately winged lengthwise. Petioles deeply grooved above, (2-)3-4(-6) mm long; blades subcoriaceous. lanceolate-oblong, (6-)9-11(-13) x (2-)2.5-3(-4) cm, apex gradually attenuate or subacuminate for 1-1.5 cm, tip acute, base broadly attenuate to acute, in dry state dark greenish-blackish above, brown beneath, dull on both surfaces, more or less densely tuberculate mainly beneath in mature leaves, primary vein a little impressed above, prominent beneath, secondary veins 6-8(-12) pairs, perpendicular to the primary vein, curved and anastomosing before the margin, obscurely raised beneath. Racemes 1-2(-3) per axil, cyme-like, 5-8-flowered, glabrous, (1.5-)2(-3) cm long; pedicels 2-3(-5) mm long. Calyx barely 1 mm, 5-dentate in the dolichostylous, almost obsolete in the brachystylous form; petals white, 10-13 x ca. 2 mm, white-hairy inside, the upper margin involute; stamens 10 or sometimes 7 or 8 by abortion; ovary oblong-conoid, with the style included ca. 8 mm long in the dolichostylous, and ca. 5 mm long in the brachystylous form. Drupe oblongoid-ellipsoid, pinkish, finally changing to purplish-blackish, pruinose, 1.5-1.8 x 1.3-1.6 cm.

A tropical plant.

Uses: Wood hard, heavy, yellowish. The roots of the young plants deliver most of the drug with alleged aphrodisiac properties used by the Creoles; drug exported from Manaus and Belem under the name muira puama.

Can be grown by seedlings.