Plants of Panama

Panama’s position as a land bridge between North and South America creates a patchwork of ecosystems — rainforests, cloud forests, mangroves and seasonally dry areas — that support a wide variety of plant species. A concise list helps make that diversity approachable whether you’re exploring in the field or reading from home.

There are 56 Plants of Panama, ranging from Acacia to Wild Pineapple. Each entry is organized for quick comparison with the columns Scientific name,Family,Max height (m), so you can check taxonomy and typical size at a glance — you’ll find below.

Where are most of these plants found within Panama?

Most occur in lowland and montane rainforests, with additional pockets in mangrove fringes and dry-forest regions on the Pacific slope; elevation and rainfall determine which species are common in a given area, so consult local habitat notes or trail guides to narrow possibilities when you spot a plant.

Is this list useful for identification or garden planning?

Yes — the Scientific name,Family,Max height (m) fields let you cross-reference plants with field guides and assess mature size for planting, but pair the list with photos, range maps, and local nursery advice for reliable identification and to ensure species suitability and legal/ethical sourcing.

Plants of Panama

Images and Descriptions

Panama Tree

The national tree of Panama, this giant is recognized by its massive buttress roots and star-shaped seed pods. It thrives in lowland forests across the country and is a key pioneer species in regenerating areas, providing food for wildlife.

Holy Ghost Orchid

Panama’s national flower, this terrestrial orchid is famous for its intricate, dove-shaped structure within its white, waxy flower. Found in moist mountain forests, it is critically endangered due to over-collection and habitat loss.

Cuipo

An iconic emergent tree of the tropical dry forest, easily spotted by its smooth, swollen, greyish trunk. It dramatically drops its leaves during the dry season, towering over the canopy. Common in the Canal Zone and Pacific lowlands.

Kapok Tree

A colossal rainforest giant with a massive, buttressed trunk often studded with conical spines. Its seed pods release a silky, cotton-like fiber. Revered as a sacred tree, it is found in humid lowland forests throughout Panama.

Epiphytic Cycad

The world’s only truly epiphytic cycad, this remarkable plant is endemic to Panama’s cloud forests. It grows high on tree branches, producing a large, cone-like structure. Its unique lifestyle makes it a botanical marvel of the country.

Panama Hat Palm

Not a true palm, this plant’s large, fan-like leaves are harvested to make authentic Panama hats. It grows in clumps in the wet forest understory, particularly in areas like Darién and the Caribbean slope, and is economically important.

Red Mangrove

A foundational species of coastal ecosystems, recognized by its distinctive prop roots that arch into the saltwater. It lines estuaries and coastlines throughout Panama, providing critical habitat for marine life and protecting the shore from erosion.

Balsa Tree

Famous for its incredibly lightweight and strong wood, the Balsa is a fast-growing pioneer tree found in forest clearings and along rivers. Its large, pale flowers open at night to attract bats. It is common in lowland areas.

Cacao

The source of chocolate, this small understory tree is native to the region’s rainforests. It uniquely grows its football-shaped pods directly from the trunk and main branches. Wild and cultivated varieties are found in Bocas del Toro and Darién.

Guanacaste

A massive, wide-spreading tree with a huge canopy, often found in drier Pacific regions and pastures. It is easily identified by its distinctive, ear-shaped, woody seed pods. Its immense size provides valuable shade for livestock.

Poor Man’s Umbrella

Found in the cool, wet cloud forests of the Chiriquí Highlands, this herbaceous plant has gigantic, rhubarb-like leaves that can span over a meter. It forms a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, which is visible at the plant’s base.

Black Palm

A formidable palm of lowland rainforests, its trunk is densely covered in long, sharp, black spines, offering it protection from animals. It produces edible fruits that are an important food source for peccaries and other forest mammals.

Hot Lips

This understory shrub gains its name from a pair of bright red, waxy bracts that resemble luscious lips before the small, white flowers emerge. It grows in the humid rainforests of Darién and the Canal Zone, attracting hummingbird pollinators.

Monkey Pot Tree

A large rainforest tree named for its woody, pot-like fruit capsules. When mature, a lid-like operculum opens, releasing the seeds. Monkeys are known to raid the pods, hence the name. It is found in the wet forests of central Panama.

Hanging Lobster Claw

One of Panama’s most spectacular flowers, this plant features long, pendulous inflorescences with vibrant red and yellow bracts that resemble lobster claws. It thrives in wet, open areas and forest edges, attracting hummingbirds for pollination.

Swiss Cheese Plant

The famous houseplant grows wild as a massive climbing vine in Panama’s wet forests. It uses aerial roots to ascend large trees, developing its iconic split and perforated leaves as it matures to capture sunlight on the forest floor.

Grapeleaf Passionflower

A striking vine with three-lobed leaves resembling a grapevine. It produces brilliant scarlet-red flowers that are among the most vibrant in the rainforest. It can be found climbing at forest edges and clearings throughout Panama’s lowlands.

Cannonball Tree

A remarkable tree known for its large, round, cannonball-like fruits that hang from woody stalks on the trunk. Its fragrant, complex flowers are a burst of pink and yellow. Naturalized in many botanical gardens and parks in Panama.

Jagua

A common tree in humid forests, its fruit produces a blue-black dye used for centuries by indigenous peoples for temporary body art and insect repellent. The fruit is edible only when overripe and has a strong, distinct flavor.

Frangipani

Native to Panama, this small tree is famous for its highly fragrant, waxy flowers, which can be pink, white, or yellow. It thrives in the drier forests of the Pacific slope and is often cultivated for its stunning ornamental value.

Calabash Tree

A small tree of open, drier areas, known for its large, spherical, hard-shelled fruits that grow directly on its trunk and branches. The dried shells are traditionally used by local communities to make bowls, cups, and musical instruments.

Quira

A valuable timber tree with a beautiful, durable, and rosewood-like heartwood. It is found in the humid forests of Darién and the Canal Zone. The tree produces bright yellow, fragrant flowers that cover the canopy in the dry season.

Annon

An endemic tree of Panama’s forests, it produces a unique fruit covered in woody, pyramidal protrusions. The pulp is edible and has a pleasant taste. It is an example of the unique fruit diversity found within the country’s borders.

Monkey Comb

This fast-growing tree is easily recognized by its bizarre, sea urchin-like fruit, which is flat, round, and covered in soft bristles. It is a common pioneer species in disturbed areas and secondary forests throughout the lowlands.

Wild Cashew

A massive relative of the cultivated cashew, this canopy tree is common in lowland forests. It produces a kidney-shaped nut attached to a fleshy, edible fruit stalk. Its caustic shell sap can cause skin irritation, similar to poison ivy.

Candle Tree

A small, unusual tree native to Panama that produces long, waxy, yellowish fruit that hang from the trunk and branches, resembling candles. The fruit is edible and was a food source for indigenous peoples. It is often grown as a curiosity.

Cow Tree

A large rainforest tree famous for its copious white latex, which is non-toxic and drinkable, resembling milk in appearance and consistency. Indigenous communities have traditionally used this “milk” as a beverage. It is found in wet forests.

Water Hyacinth

A free-floating aquatic plant with beautiful lavender flowers, it has become naturalized and can form dense mats on freshwater bodies like Gatun Lake. While attractive, it is an invasive species that can clog waterways.

Rain Tree

A majestic, wide-canopied tree often found in open, drier areas. Its leaves fold up at night and on cloudy days, allowing rain to pass through to the ground below. Its pink, pom-pom-like flowers are a beautiful sight.

Cecropia

A classic pioneer tree of the Neotropics, easily identified by its large, palmate leaves with silvery undersides and hollow, segmented trunk. It grows rapidly in clearings and forms a symbiotic relationship with aggressive Azteca ants.

Walking Palm

This distinctive palm stands on a cone of stilt-like roots, which gives it the appearance of “walking.” Found in wet lowland forests, these roots may help it stabilize in swampy soil or gain a slight advantage in reaching for light.

Spiral Ginger

A common and striking plant of the forest understory, its leaves are arranged in a spiral around the stem. It produces a cone-like inflorescence with bright red bracts from which yellow, edible flowers emerge, tasting of lemon.

Angel’s Trumpet

Well-established in Panama’s highlands, this shrub produces large, fragrant, trumpet-shaped, pendulous flowers that open at night. All parts of the plant are highly toxic and hallucinogenic, and it should be handled with extreme care.

Golden Trumpet Tree

During the dry season, this magnificent tree briefly explodes into a brilliant mass of yellow flowers, creating one of the most spectacular displays in the Panamanian forest. It is common in the drier Pacific-slope forests.

Powderpuff

A shrub or small tree native to Panama, known for its beautiful, brush-like inflorescences of long, colourful stamens, resembling a powder puff. It’s a fast-growing species often used in agroforestry and for land restoration.

Liana

A giant woody vine, or liana, whose flattened, twisted stems look like a staircase climbing into the rainforest canopy. It is a common sight in mature forests, providing pathways for arboreal animals like monkeys.

Strangler Fig

This tree begins life as an epiphyte on a host tree. It sends down aerial roots that eventually envelop and “strangle” the host, forming a massive, hollow lattice-like trunk. It is a keystone species, providing fruit for many animals.

Acacia

This small tree is a classic example of mutualism, featuring swollen thorns that house colonies of stinging ants. In exchange for shelter and nectar, the ants viciously defend the tree from herbivores and competing plants.

Bat-wing Passionflower

This unusual vine has distinctively shaped leaves that strongly resemble a bat in flight. It is less showy than its relatives, with small, greenish-yellow flowers. It can be found in drier, more open forests on the Pacific slope.

Cycad

A small, palm-like cycad that is endemic to the wet lowland forests of southwestern Panama and adjacent Costa Rica. It has a subterranean trunk and produces a large, heavy seed cone, representing an ancient lineage of plants.

Elephant Ear

Native to the region, this plant has huge, arrow-shaped leaves and is commonly found in wet, disturbed areas. Its starchy corm, known as malanga or otoe, is a traditional and important food staple in Panama.

Achiote

A small tree or shrub best known as the source of annatto, a natural orange-red pigment derived from its spiny, heart-shaped seed pods. It is widely used in Latin American cuisine for coloring and flavouring.

Ice Cream Bean

A fast-growing tree common along rivers, it produces long, ridged seed pods. Inside, the seeds are covered in a sweet, white, cottony pulp with a flavour reminiscent of vanilla ice cream, making it a popular trailside snack.

Tree Fern

A beautiful and ancient plant that gives a prehistoric feel to the cloud forests of the Chiriquí highlands. Its large, feathery fronds unfurl from a central fibrous trunk, creating a lush, green canopy in the forest understory.

Sobralia Orchid

A lovely terrestrial orchid that produces delicate, cattleya-like flowers that are typically pink or lavender. Each beautiful flower lasts only for a single day. It grows in open, grassy areas in the mid-elevation mountains of Panama.

Coconut Palm

Though debated, it is considered a well-established naturalized species along Panama’s coasts, especially in the Guna Yala region. This iconic palm is vital to coastal economies, providing food, drink, oil, and building materials.

Guarumo

A widespread pioneer tree in Panama, easily recognized by its hollow trunk and large, umbrella-like leaves with a white underside. It often hosts Azteca ants and is crucial for forest regeneration after disturbances like landslides.

Bamboo Palm

A slender, graceful understory palm with a green, cane-like trunk resembling bamboo. It is common in wet forests and its unopened male inflorescences are consumed as a vegetable, known locally as “pacaya”.

Bejuco de Agua

A common liana in Panama’s forests, known as the “water vine”. By cutting a section of its porous stem, one can obtain a stream of clean, drinkable water, a survival technique used by indigenous peoples and forest dwellers.

Spanish Cedar

A large, valuable timber tree found in both dry and moist lowland forests. Its aromatic, insect-repellent wood is highly prized for making furniture, humidors, and instruments. It is threatened by over-harvesting.

Corteza Amarilla

Similar to the Guayacán, this tree produces a breathtaking, but very brief, explosion of bright yellow flowers during the dry season, often carpeting the forest floor beneath it. It is a stunning feature of Panama’s dry forests.

Wild Pineapple

A large, terrestrial bromeliad that forms dense, impenetrable thickets on the forest floor, armed with heavily spined leaves. It produces a pinkish inflorescence and a pineapple-like fruit that is an important food for peccaries.

Tickseed

An endemic Panamanian plant, this cheerful herb grows in the high-elevation grasslands of Chiriquí. It is known for its bright yellow, daisy-like flowers. It represents the unique flora adapted to Panama’s cool mountain habitats.

Panama Big-leaf

This spectacular terrestrial anthurium, found in Panama’s eastern rainforests, is known for its enormous, deeply lobed leaves that can reach impressive sizes. It is a stunning example of the diversity within the Araceae family.

Black Calabash

A small tree found in coastal and mangrove habitats, it produces round, green, hard-shelled fruits that resemble small calabashes. Unlike its relative Crescentia, it can tolerate and thrive in brackish water environments.

Monkey Ladder

A colossal liana with one of the world’s largest seed pods, which can exceed a meter in length. Its thick, woody stems twist and climb high into the canopy of mature rainforests, particularly in coastal and riverine areas.

Plants in Other Countries