Shrubs or trees, to 10 m. Leaves: petiole 12-25 mm; blade ovate to oblong or oblong-elliptic, 50-106 × 30-50 mm, base rounded or truncate, margins sinuate and somewhat revolute, apex retuse (older leaves often split on pressed specimens), surfaces glabrous or sparsely tomentose abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Inflorescences 2-5-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary. Pedicels 10-25 mm, puberulous or glabrous. Flowers: sepals elliptic-lanceolate, 4-8 mm, apex acute to obtuse, tomentose to subglabrate; petals yellow, divided to base into larger median and 2 lateral segments, lobes 6-7 mm, median segment boat-shaped, clawed, lateral segments lanceolate to falcate, glabrous, corolla 4-9 mm, tube 1-2 mm (shorter than lobes); staminodes triangular-lanceolate; ovary appressed-puberulous. Berries depressed-globose, 25-40 mm, surface roughened, scaly; pedicels conspicuously enlarged distally. Seeds 3-5, 14-18 mm.

Flowering year-round. Hammocks, mangroves, other coastal thickets; 0-5 m; Fla.; West Indies (Bahamas).

Subspecies emarginata is known from Collier and Miami-Dade counties and the Monroe County keys. It is listed as threatened by the state of Florida.