Hemiepiphytic; stem light reddish brown to rusty red, leaf scars conspicuous, 8 mm long, 12 mm wide; internodes sparsely short dark-lineate, sometimes weakly warty, semiglossy, 6–20 cm long, 1–1.2 cm diam., longer than broad, dark green to olive-green to brown, epidermis loosening and flaking, reddish brown; cataphylls soft, 20–40 cm long, unribbed, sometimes bluntly 1-ribbed, greenish white to white with margins pinkish, drying reddish, deciduous; petioles 21–63 cm long, 4–11 mm diam., erect-spreading to spreading, terete, to C-shaped, somewhat flattened adaxially, medium greem, surface matte, sometimes striate and dark green- to red-lineate; geniculum 3 cm long, 2.5–3 cm diam., thinner and paler than petiole; blades ovate, subcoriaceous, bicolorous, acuminate at apex, cordate or sometimes sagittate at base, 25–62 cm long, 16–52 cm wide (0.6–1.75 times longer than wide), (0.7–1.6 times longer than petiole), upper surface dark green, glossy to semiglossy, lower surface glossy to semiglossy, paler; anterior lobe 23–65 cm long, 19–52 cm wide, (0.88–1.5 times longer than wide); posterior lobes rounded to obtuse, 8–20 cm long, 9–26 cm wide; sinus spathulate to hippocrepiform; midrib flat to sunken, paler than surface above, narrowly convex to round-raised, paler than surface, sometimes tinged maroon below; basal veins 5–9 per side, with 0–2 free to base, (2)3–4 coalesced 1.9–4.5 cm; posterior rib naked for 1–4.5; primary lateral veins 4-6 per side, departing midrib at a 45–55 degree angle, conspicuously sunken above, narrowly convex and tinged maroon below; interprimary veins weakly raised and darker than surface below; minor veins arising from both the midrib and primary lateral veins; tertiary veins visible and sometimes darker than surface below. Inflorescences erect, 1 per axil; peduncle 4–20 cm long, 8–9 mm diam., medium green, whitish at base, short dark green lineate; spathe glossy, 11–21 cm long, (1.05–2.85 times longer than peduncle), constricted midway above the tube; spathe blade cream outside, greenish white (at anthesis) inside; spathe tube 6.5–9 cm long, green outside, cherry-red inside; spadix 9–17 cm long, broadest above the middle or more or less uniform throughout; pistillate portion cylindrical to obovoid, 3.8–7 cm long, 7–13 mm diam. at apex, 8–14 mm diam. at middle, 10–14 mm wide at base; staminate portion 4.6–17.5 cm long; fertile staminate portion clavate, 9–16 mm diam. at base, 12–20 mm diam. at middle, 7–10 mm diam. ca. 1 cm from apex, broadest at middle, broader than the pistillate portion, narrower than the sterile portion; sterile staminate portion as broad as or narrower than the pistillate portion, 0.9–1.6 cm diam.; pistils 1.3–3.2 mm long, 1–1.8 mm diam.; ovary 5(6)7-locular, 0.9–2.1 mm long, 0.9 mm diam., with axile placentation; ovules (13)15–18 per locule, arranged in series of 2, 0.1–1.7 mm long, longer than or equal in length to funicle, style 1.2 mm diam., similar to style type B; style apex rounded; stigma subdiscoid, lobed, 1.5 mm diam., 0.3 mm high, covering not quite entire style apex; the androecium truncate, 3–6-sided, 2.2 mm long; thecae oblong, 0.2–0.5 mm wide; sterile staminate flowers blunt with one side scalloped, 1–2.2 mm long, 0.7–1.9 mm wide. Infructescence with berries white. Juvenile plants with internodes to 10 cm long, 4–10 mm diam.; cataphylls reddish, persisting at upper nodes, sharply C-shaped in cross-section.

Type: Panama. Coclé: Alto Calvario, 6 mi. N of El Copé, Atlantic slope along Continental Divide, along trail which heads off old lumber trail and leads down to Las Ricas, Limón, and San Juan, 710-﷓800 m, 8E39'N, 80E36'W, 22 June 1988, Croat 68713 (holotype, MO-3591332).

Esmeraldas: Bilsa Biological Station, 400--600 m, 0°21'N, 79°44'W, 11 Dec 1994, Pitman & Marsh 1085 (MEXU, MO, NY, QCNE). — Costa Rica to Panama, Colombia (Valle) and Ecuador (Esmeraldas), at 50 to 1300 m elevation in tropical wet forest and premontane rain forest.