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Notes:
This species is characterized by its robust habit, large leaves and stipules, unusually elongated peduncle, and pendulous capitate inflorescences enclosed by large purple involucral bracts. It is generally similar to several other species of the Chocó biogeographic region, in particular Palicourea acanthacea, but its remarkably long peduncle is distinctive. This inflorescence arrangement is not unique in Rubiaceae however, but has arisen independently in Neotropical Palicourea and African Psychotria (e.g., Psychotria megalopus), though it appears to be an adaptation for hummingbird pollination in the Neotropical plants and for fruit dispersal in the African plants. This species was classified by Taylor (1997) in Palicourea subg. Montanae sect. Cephaeloides ser. 11, but later (Taylor, 2017) re-classified in Palicourea sect. Chocoane.
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