Dioecious liana, growing into canopy; trunk flattened, 5-20 cm diam; stems puberulent when young, becoming glabrous, the apices often attenuated and twining. Leaves alternate; petioles 0.7-4.5 cm long, usually curved and enlarged near apex; blades oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, acuminate to bluntly acuminate, rounded, truncate, or subcordate at base, 5-15.5 cm long, 2-8.5 cm wide, stiff, glabrous but with sparse appressed pubescence below and stiff erect trichomes on major veins above, the margins entire to obscurely crenulate; veins at base 3-5, the midrib arched. Staminate inflorescences narrowly pseudoracemose, 5-10 cm long, the branchlets reduced to short-stalked, 3-flowered cymules; pedicels to 1.7 mm long; pedicels and sepals with dense, erect or appressed puberulence; outer sepals 3, narrowly triangular or lanceolate, ciliate, ca 1.3 mm long, the inner sepals 3, ovate, thick, valvate, held closely together in basal half, somewhat spreading above the middle, acute at apex, +/- glabrous to granular-puberulent on inside, with appressed grayish pubescence on outside; petals lacking; stamens 6, included, slightly more than 1 mm long, in 2 series, the inner 3 somewhat larger with the filaments connate into a column and the anthers swollen, the thecae apical, widely separated by a swollen connective, the outer 3 with the filaments free and the anthers minute. Pistillate inflorescences similar to staminate but apparently shorter; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary densely sericeous, curved; styles apical and possibly fused to each other in flower but free at least in juvenile fruit, curved outward, pointed at apex. Fruits 3-parted, the carpels drupaceous, oblong-obovate, orange to black at maturity, 2-2.3 cm long, 1.1-1.2 cm diam, tomentulose when young, glabrate; seeds 1 per carpel, each surrounded by a fleshy white mesocarp. Croat 15004.

Descripción: Plantas trepadoras o lianas con el tronco estriado y aplanado. Ramitas con lenticelas blancas. Hojas simples y alternas, de 5-15 x 2-8 cm, oblongas o elípticas, con ápice acuminado, bordes enteros y base redondeada, truncada o ligeramente cordada. Las hojas presentan de 3-5 nervaduras principales, basales o ligeramente arriba de la base. Pecíolo de 0.7-4.5 cm de largo y pulvinado en ambos extremos. Inflorescencias estaminadas de 5-10 cm de largo. Inflorescencias pistiladas similares a las estaminadas, pero más cortas. Frutos elipsoidales a oblongos, de 2-2.3 x 1-1.2 cm, verdes y ligeramente lenticelados, tornándose anaranjados o negros al madurar.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK abutpa Abuta panamensis LK2 , pero en A. panamensis las hojas, los pecíolos y los frutos son más grandes. En A. panamensis las flores son pediceladas, y en A. racemosa las flores no son pediceladas. Por el tronco aplanado y estriado se puede confundir con LK mar2pa Maripa panamensis LK2 , pero en M. panamensis las hojas nuevas son moradas y el pecíolo no es pulvinado.

Usos: Las semillas se utilizan para fabricar collares, aretes y pulseras.