Annual or short-lived perennial, herbaceous shrub, erect to sprawling, occasionally woody at base, sometimes spreading by rhizomes, up to 1.5 m high. Stems green or purplish; stems, petioles, veins of upper and lower leaf surfaces, pedicels and calyces bearing scattered to many prickles, very sharp, straight, pale or straw-coloured, ± narrowly (up to 2 mm) based, 2-14 mm long; sparsely pilose with 1.5-5.0 mm long, simple, shiny, uniseriate, few-celled hairs (stellate hairs absent) and minute, simple, glandular hairs. Leaves membranous or papery, concolorous green, broadly ovate in outline, up to 150 x 135 mm, 5-7-lobed, slightly cordate at base, sinuses reaching about halfway or less to midrib, lobes and leaf apex acute or obtuse, major lobes often entire or slightly repand but scarcely pinnately lobed, margins ciliate: petiole up to 80 mm long. Flowers 1-7 together on short peduncle, 2-4 mm long, or pedicellate on stem in internodal position: first flowers staminate; pedicels 10-25 mm long at anthesis. Calyx often prickly; tube 2-5 mm long; lobes 2-5 mm long, broadly lanceolate or triangular-ovate, acute, slightly accrescent. Corolla 10-15 x 20-30 mm. deeply stellate with lobes ±10 mm long, glabrous inside and outside, white or rarely pale mauve. Stamens subequal; filaments 1-2 mm long, glabrous; anthers 3-7 mm long, tapered upwards, erect in cone, pale yellow; pores minute. Ovary with some glandular hairs; style 5-8 mm long, erect, pale, styles of perfect flowers exserted, those of staminate flowers equalling filaments; stigma green. Fruit slightly depressed-globular, 20-40 mm diam., bright, matte orange-scarlet when mature, flesh thick, white, spongy, sweetish tasting (tasteless?), dryish when ripe, containing ±300 seeds. Seeds orbicular-ovoid. 4-6 mm diam., flat, minutely pitted, reticulate, area over embryo pale yellowish or light brown, bordered by a distinct, pale wing ±1.5 mm wide. Cotyledons broadly ovate-lanceolate, ±13 x 7 mm. first true leaves almost orbicular, petioles without spines, later leaves increasingly lobed.
More
Herbs or subshrubs, erect or sprawling, 30-60(-100) cm tall, copiously armed with pale yellow, needlelike prickles, pubescent with coarse, many-celled simple hairs. Stems conspicuously white lenticellate, glabrescent to pilose; prickles straight to slightly recurved, 0.5-1.8 cm. Leaves paired; petiole stout, 2-7 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, 5-13 × 4-12 cm, with many-celled simple hairs adaxially, glabrous or hairy only along veins abaxially, prickly along veins on both surfaces, base cordate, margin 5-7-lobed to halfway, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences extra-axillary, racemose, 1-4-flowered; peduncle unbranched. Pedicel 5-12 mm. Calyx cup-shaped, ca. 5 × 8 mm; lobes ovate, pubescent as on stems. Corolla white, greenish at base; lobes lanceolate, ca. 12 × 4 mm. Filaments 2.5 mm; anthers lanceolate, ca. 6 mm. Ovary minutely stipitate glandular. Style 7-8 mm. Fruiting pedicel 2-2.5 cm. Fruiting calyx copiously armed, somewhat enlarged, not covering fruit. Berry orange-red, subglobose, 3.5-6 cm in diam., mesocarp white, spongy. Seeds yellowish, discoid, with a conspicuous, thin orbicular wing, 4-6 mm in diam. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.
Annual or short-lived perennial shrub to 1 m high, green, sparsely pilose with long simple and minute glandular hairs; prickles to 12 mm long, scattered to common on most parts. Leaves broadly ovate, the lamina up to 15 cm long and wide, but usually smaller, concolorous, lobed; petiole to 8 cm long. Flowers 1–3; peduncle 2–4 mm long; pedicels 10–25 mm long. Calyx 4–6 mm long; lobes lanceolate, 2–3 mm long. Corolla stellate, deeply incised, 20–30 mm diam., white. Anthers 5–7 mm long. Berry depressed globular, 20–35 mm diam., bright orange-scarlet, flesh white. Seeds 4–6 mm diam., pale yellowish or light brown, winged.
A shrub. It grows 1 m tall. It has soft hairs and also prickles. The leaf stalk is 8 cm long. The leaf blades are broadly oval and 15 cm long. They have coarse teeth or lobes. There are 2-5 flowers in a group. The flower calyx is deeply 5 lobed. The fruit are round and 2-4 cm across.
Shrub to 1.8 m; spines long, straight. Leaves deeply lobed, to 18 cm long. Flowers paired, white, to 12 mm diam. Berries red, 25 mm diam.
An often abundant weed in unshaded disturbed artificial weedy habitats such as roadsides, waste places, pastures, old coffee plantations, stream banks, beaches, cultivated land (presumably the edges), open woods and around dwellings.
More
A tropical plant. It has become widespread as a self sown plant in the tropics. In Asia it grows up to 1,500 m altitude. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 700 m above sea level. In Sichuan and Yunnan.
Common in disturbed areas in clearings, along creeklines and forest margins.
Home
