Rauvolfia tetraphylla L.

Shrubs, to ca. 2 m, or sometimes trees to ca. 4 m, the stems glabrous to softly pubescent. Leaves mostly quarternate, conspicuously anisophyllous, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, rarely weakly obovate, acute, obtuse to attenuate basally, the larger leaves to 17 cm long and 7 cm wide, the smaller leaves ca. 1/2 as long as the largest, glabrous to occasionally sparsely pubescent on both surfaces; petioles glandular, ca. 1-7 mm long, glandular in the axils. Inflorescences cymose, axillary or terminal, few-flowered, the peduncle ca. 1-4 cm long, sometimes sparsely pubescent. Flowers with the pedicels ca. 3-5 mm long; calyx lobes ovate, + acute, ca. 1.5 mm long, the margin frequently fimbriolate; corolla urceolate, white, glabrous or pubescent externally, the tube ca. 2-3 mm long, pubescent within near the orifice, the lobes shallow and rounded, erect, ca. 1 mm long; stamens attached near the top of the corolla tube, the anthers ca. 0.8 mm long; ovary syncarpous, the nectary cupulate, entire, the stigma subcapitate. Drupes + spherical and bilobed, ca. 5-8 mm in diameter, red, becoming black with maturity, the bony endocarp distinctly rugose; seeds 2, ovoid.

Wet to dry thickets, often in second growth or in waste ground or old fields, usually at elevations below 500 metres, but also extending to 2,000 metres in Guatemala.

Can be grown by seedlings.