Schefflera epiphytica A. C. Sm.

Schefflera epiphytica A. C. Smith, Ann. Mo. Bot Gard. 28:437. 1941.
Epiphytic shrub 1.5-2 m. high, glabrous throughout except for the inflorescence, the branchlets stout, striate; leaves simple, the petiole stout, 7-15 mm. long, broadly winged below, distally lightly canaliculate, toward the middle conspicuously ligulate, the ligule coriaceous, oblong-linear, up to 2.5 cm. long, persistent; leaf -blades chartaceous, elliptic-oblong, 18-25 cm. long, 9-12 cm. broad, subcordate or rounded at the base, abruptly acuminate at the apex (the acumen acute, up to 1 cm. long), entire at the margins, the costa prominent, the secondary nerves 10-16 per side, spreading, curved toward the margins, raised on both surfaces, the veinlet-reticulation prominulous; inflorescence compound-paniculate, the rachis and branches slender, puberulent, soon glabrescent, the peduncle essentially lacking, the rachis 2-4 cm. long, the branches few, 15-35 cm. long, subtended by chartaceous oblong bracts 1.5-3 cm. long, the peduncles numerous, slender, up to 9 mm. long at anthesis and 15 mm. long in fruit, puberulent, soon glabrescent; flowers 5-merous, 3-8 per umbel, the pedicels slender, 3-6 mm. long; calyx obconic, 1-1.5 mm. long and slightly broader, the limb obscurely apiculate; petals glabrous, membranous, connate into a semiglobose umbonate calyptra 2-2.5 mm. in diameter; filaments slender, 0.4-0.7 mm. long, the anthers about 1.5 mm. long; styles 5, connate into a carnose column, minutely free at the apices; fruit subglobose, up to 3.5 mm. in diameter, conspicuously 5-costate, surmounted by the disk and stylar column.
Type locality: Panama (Code).
Distribution; Panama, known only from the type locality, about 1000 m.