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Notes:
This species is characterized by its medium-sized habit, stipules with truncate sheaths and acute lobes, pyramidal inflorescences with pedicellate flowers, tubular medium-sized yellow to orange corollas, and flattened ellipsoid to ovoid fruits. This is the most commonly collected species of Palicourea in Central America and Mexico. The corollas are all yellow through most of its range, but in plants of southern Costa Rica and western Panama the corollas are yellow at anthesis then turn orange and remain on the plant for another day or two. This species is occasionally cultivated locally as an ornamental (e.g., Las Cruces Biological Station, Costa Rica). The plants seem to often flower, produce fruits, and then flower again more than once per year. This species was misidentified for many years as "Palicourea galeottiana", but that name actually applies to a different species with small white flowers and is more closely related to species currently classified in Psychotria Subg. Heteropsychotria (Taylor & Lorence 1992). Palicourea padifolia is similar to and presumably a vicariant relative of Palicourea alpina of the Greater Antilles and Palicourea thyrsiflora of Andean South America.
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