Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)new species of Mucuna (Leguminosae) from Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia is described and illustrated. Although the species is morphologically grouped with a number of species from Central and South America that have the primary axis of their inflorescences condensed, M. globulifera is distinguished by a suite of characters, including a condensed primary inflorescence axis (very reduced internodes, the nodes up to approximately 1 mm apart from the one above), an extremely long peduncle, secondary bracts surrounding a large and conspicuous globose structure when the inflorescence is young, flowers usually pale salmon in colour, fruits softly villous and lacking urticating trichomes, and the presence of very sparse appressed hairs on the leaflet surfaces, or the leaflets almost glabrous.681151155Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Rupert Barneby Award programme of The New York Botanical Garden, FAEPEX UNICAMP [43211]Shirley A. Graham fellowships in Systematic Botany and Biogeography of Missouri Botanical GardenDarwin Initiative of the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) [15/027]Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)CAPES [4627-11-3]Rupert Barneby Award programme of The New York Botanical Garden, FAEPEX UNICAMP [43211]Darwin Initiative of the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) [15/027]FAPERJ [E-26/110.331/2012]