Alibertia edulis (Rich.) A.Rich. ex Dc.

Shrubs or small trees, presumably dioecious, the branchlets terete or often ultimately angular, smooth, glabrous, stiffly ascending. Leaves narrowly oblong, falcately oblong, oblong, ovate or rarely obovate-oblong, 6-20 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, deltoid at the apex, acuminate, the acumen to 0.1 cm long, usually acute, deltoid to obtuse at the base; the costa plane to prominulous above, prominent beneath, to 0.2 cm wide, glabrous, the lateral veins 6-15, arcuate, to 2 cm apart, thin-coriaceous, lustrous, glabrous; petioles 0.5-1.0 cm long, rarely absent, gla-brous; stipules connate or free, deltoid, narrowly deltoid or obovate-oblong, ca. 1.5(-2.0) cm long, 0.4-0.6 cimwide, attenuate-acuminate, the acumen often longer than the corpus, scarious, striate-venose, glabrous. Inflorescences of 1 to several terminal flowers subtended' by broadly-ovate bracts shorter than or exceeding the hypanthium in-length, the buds with the apex of the corolla acute and dilated. Flowers sessile; unisexual, the pistillate'-fl-owers solitary, the staminate flowers in a cluster of about 8; hypanthium and calycine cup ca. 0.5 cm long, carnose, glabrous, the teeth 5-4)',' deltoid;to linear, to 1.8 mm long, acute to obtuse; corolla white, the tube 1-3 cm long, glabrous or villosulose outside, subcoria-ceous, the lobes 4-5, imbricate', oblong, to 2 cm long, often exceeding the tube; stamens usually (4-)5(-S8), the anthers narrowly oblong, 5-13 mm long, ca. 13 mm long in male flowers, ca.-5 mm long in female flowers, 0.8-1.0 mm wide, often minutely apiculate, dorsifixedj-thefilaments short, ca. 0.5 cm long; ovarian

It is a tropical plant. It grows in the hot tropical lowlands. It grows in open places in the Amazon in Brazil. It is common along creeks. In Central America it grows from sea level to 1,000 m altitude. It grows in the dry zone.

The ripe fruit are eaten fresh or used to make jellies and sweets. They are used in drinks. The roasted seeds are used as a coffee substitute.

Plants are grown from seed. To collect seeds the ripe fruit are harvested and allowed to partly decompose in plastic bags then the seeds are washed out under running water. Seeds need to be planted fresh. Seedlings emerge in 50-60 days.