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Shrub or small tree, up to 10 m. tall, much branched, with bushy crown.. Branches and branchlets with numerous lenticels and straight sharp axillary spines up to 7 cm. long.. Leaf-blades usually elliptic or ovate-elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate, ± papyraceous, rarely subcoriaceous, often wine red when young, glabrous, margin finely serrate or crenate-serrate (more coarsely so in coppice shoots), 3.5–14 cm. long, 2–7 cm. broad; lateral nerves 6–8(–10) pairs, tertiary ones dense and visibly reticulated on both faces; petiole 0.6–1 cm. long.. Flowers solitary, white, beautiful, on a peduncle 1–2 cm. long.. Sepals broadly ovate to suborbicular, greenish dorsally, white inside, ± persistent and finally reflexed, 1–1.5 cm. long, 0.8–1.2 cm. broad.. Petals obovate-cuneate, pure white in anthesis (often pinkish in bud or when ageing), outer ones 2.5–3.5 cm. long and 1.5–2 cm. broad, inner ones narrower.. Stamens 200–300, ± cohering in 5 bundles; anthers linear to linear-oblong, 2–3 mm.. Ovary subglobose; style 6–10 mm. long, with a circle of sessile subglobose (± connate) stigma-rays on top.. Fruit round, 5(–6) cm. in diameter, smooth or marked with a number of slight longitudinal rib-like markings, with a hard shell-like red-brown and glossy pericarp.. Seeds ovoid, blackish brown, glabrous, 6–7 mm. long, 3–4 mm. broad.. Fig. 6/1–8.
It can be a shrub or a tree up to 6-12 m tall. The trunk can be 60 cm across. The branches have sharp spines produced in the axils of leaves. These can be 2-5 cm long. The leaves are simple and alternate. They are oval and 3-12 cm long by 2-10 cm wide. The tips are often long and drawn out. The leaves are dark green and shiny above and lighter and duller underneath. The leaf stalk is short. The flowers are large and white. They have a sweet scent. They are 5-8 cm across. The fruit are round and up to 6 cm across. They have a sharp growth at the tip. The skin is thin and hard. They are green and turn yellow. The pulp is yellow and mealy. There are many small flat reddish-brown seeds. The fruit are edible.
Leaf-lamina 3.5–12 x 2–10 cm., usually rather membranous, elliptic, ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic, acuminate at the apex, abruptly cuneate at the base, serrate or serrate-crenate except near the base or serrations almost obsolete, with 7–11 pairs of lateral nerves, venation reticulate but not very conspicuous; petiole up to 8 mm. long.
Fruit dark green or finally brown, c. 5 cm. in diam., globose, smooth, with a hard shell marked with c. 8 rather faint longitudinal lines, the old calyx persistent at the base, many-seeded.
Calyx globose in bud with 4 very concave, imbricate, persistent lobes shortly united at the base; lobes c. 1.5 x 1.2 cm., rounded at the apex and rather membranous at the margins.
Anthers yellow, very numerous, 1.75 mm. long, linear with the connective produced as a minute narrowly triangular tip; filaments up to 6 mm. long.
Glabrous shrub or small tree up to c. 5 m. tall; branches with pale lenticels and very sharp, spreading, axillary spines up to 5 cm. long.
Ovary globose with a style as long as the stamens; stigma 4 mm. in diam., peltate or somewhat funnel-shaped and lobulate at the margins.
Petals white, 8–10, c. twice the size of the calyx-lobes, imbricate, oblong-spathulate, rounded at the apex.
Seeds c. 6 x 4 mm., the shape of a somewhat flattened apple pip, with a shiny, rich brown testa.
Flowers scented, solitary and terminal or lateral on short, axillary shoots.
A shrub, or tree up to 40 ft. high, with thorny stem and branches
Flowers as above (Oncoba brachyanthera)
Fruit hard and glossy.
