Epiphytic or terrestrial shrubs or small trees (1-)2-5(-10?) m tall with glabrous branchlets and branches.  Leaves coriaceous, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, 3-8(-10) x (1-)2.5-4(-6) cm, acute to acuminate at both ends, glabrous or sparingly to moderately appressed glandular-strigose above and especially beneath, rarely short-puberulent near the base, margins entire, slightly revolute; indistinctly 3-5-plinerved and also somewhat arcuately veined;  petioles 1-4 mm long, glabrous to hirsutulous.  Inflorescences axillary, racemes umbelliform, mostly 2-4 cm long;  rachis glabrous to sparingly puberulent, 0.5-2 cm long;  floral bracts persistent, lance-ovate to lanceolate, ciliate, 1.5-2.5 mm long;  pedicels slender, sparingly puberulent, 7-15 mm long in flower;  bracteoles 2, submedial, subopposite, lance-ovate to lanceolate, often persistent, ciliate, 1-1.5 mm long.  Flowers with the calyx 2-3.5 mm high and about equal in diam., glabrous to densely puberulent, articulate with the pedicel and there marked by a clear groove and often with a fringe of glandular trichomes 0.1-0.2 mm long;  hypanthium short-campanulate to turbinate;  limb 0.5-0.7 mm tall;  lobes 5, broadly and shallowly deltoid with an apiculate tip 0.2-0.5 mm long;  corolla broadly cylindric, 8-12 mm long and 6-10 mm in diam., externally and internally glabrous or apically sparsely, villose, pale yellowish or greenish-white and occasionally tinged with bright rose or pink, the lobes 5, broadly oblong, 2-3.5 mm long, apically acute to obtuse, erect to slightly recurved;  stamens 10;  filaments equal, 2-2.5 mm long, ciliate, flattened, broadened basally where slightly adherent to the very base of the corolla tube;  thecae golden, attached slightly above the middle, granular, basally inwardly curved, 1.8-2.2 mm long, lacking horns or spurs;  tubules 3.5-5.5 mm long, slender, yellowish, each with a slightly inwardly oblique pore;  style greenish, 8-10 mm long.  Berry succulent, yellowish but turning dark purple at maturity, subglobose, 7-10 mm in diam.

    Distribution.  Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and W Panama, where it is found from premontane cloud forest to páramo.

    Cultivated:  ACAD, E.