The production of domatia is a crucial step in the evolution of myrmecophytism (Fiala – Maschwitz 1992). Current models for the evolution of domatia predict that the ancestral state is one in which domatia production occurs later in a plant's ontogeny, while more derived ant-plants produce precocial domatia (Brouat – McKey 2000). I report that the neotropical tree Cordia gerascanthus L. represents a case of the former, in which domatia appear in mature trees. Through field and herbarium investigations, I have discovered that some C. gerascanthus individuals produce swollen, hollow, stem cavities that are ant-inhabited, while other C. gerascanthus individuals produce only solid stems. I suggest that C. gerascanthus, a species that produces domatia later in ontogeny, is an ideal system in which to investigate the basis of domatia evolution.