Many, see text Palicourea tomentosa, many synonyms, including Psychotria poeppigiana, is a plant species in the family Rubiaceae.

The inflorescences are carried upright or semi-erect and are surrounded by large bracts, colored a conspicuous red, that attract pollinators.

They do not insert their bills deeply into the small flowers, and thus the pollinators of the sore-mouth bush include curved- and straight-billed species alike.

As the Tulane University anthropologist and historical ecologist William Balée describes it, "... flowers of Psychotria poeppigiana [...] are wrapped in a piece of cloth and affixed to a dog's collar so that it may more easily find the enormous, highly desirable, and decidedly uncommon tapir"[6]Palicourea tomentosa has several uses in folk medicine; it is widely used as a painkiller besides having some more specialized applications.

[citation needed] The Tiriyó of Suriname crush and boil the plant and use the resulting decoction to treat headaches, sprains, rheumatism, muscular pains and bruises.