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Shrub or small tree 2.5–6.5 m. high or, very rarely, climbing (not spreading), with longitudinally ridged, thick, corky branches; young branchlets often reddish or blackish purple, densely spreading-pubescent or rarely glabrous, usually longitudinally fissured; spines normally present in pairs in the leaf-axils, ± stout, curved at the tip.. Leaves shortly petiolate; lamina coriaceous, oblong-elliptic to broadly ovate, usually broadest below the middle, 1.8–8 cm. long, 1.4–6 cm. wide (smaller leaves occurring on burnt or grazed shoots), rounded, acute or rarely emarginate at the apex and sometimes apiculate, rounded, subcordate or rarely cuneate at the base, 3–7-nerved at or just above the base (Fig. 3/3), matt or shining above; venation impressed above, prominent and conspicuous beneath, usually fairly softly pubescent, at least on the nerves; tertiary nerves visible beneath.. Cymes terminal, ± dense, usually pubescent (in our area).. Calyx-lobes narrowly triangular to linear-lanceolate, about 3 mm. long, pubescent on the back, slightly shorter than or rarely equal to the corolla.. Corolla greenish-white; lobes deltoid, about half the length of the corolla-tube, with dense hairs at the base.. Stamens inserted near the base of the corolla-tube; anthers densely bearded, longer than the filaments.. Ovary ovoid, inconspicuously bilocular; ovules numerous.. Fruit globose, 1.6–7 cm. in diameter, with a smooth woody rind, in the fresh state dark green with paler mottlings.. Seeds up to 2 cm. across, compressed but neither so flattened nor so numerous as in S. spinosa.. Fig. 3/1–6, p. 18.
Leaves: petiole short, pubescent or less often glabrous, 2–8 mm. long; lamina mat or shining and pale to dark green above, mat and pale beneath, veins often pale on both sides, coriaceous, young thinner and papyraceous when dry, very variable in shape and size, orbicular, ovate, elliptic, or sometimes narrowly elliptic, usually comparatively wider on flowering branches, smaller (as in S. spinosa) on the very spiny young shoots on fire cut stumps, 1–1·5(2–2) times as long as wide, 2–6(10) x 1–5(9) cm., emarginate, rounded to acute and apiculate, or sometimes acuminate at the apex, rounded, subcordate, or cuneate at the base, often slightly bullate or subpapillose, often with hair–pockets in the angles of the main veins beneath, pubescent or less often glabrous on both sides; 1–3 pairs of secondary veins from or from above the base curved along the margin.
A shrub or small tree up to 6 m tall. It is evergreen and thornless. The stem can be 23 cm across. The leaves are simple and opposite. They are leathery. They are dark green above and lighter below. They are 5-12 cm long by 2.5-6 cm wide. The base is narrowed. The edges roll inwards. The flowers are in dense clusters in the axils of leaves. The flowers are tubular and with 5 white star like petals. These can be 1.9 cm across. The berries are plum like and 2.5 cm long. They are red and turn purplish-black. The have 1 or 2 oval flat seeds. The fruit are edible.
Branches pale to dark brown when dry, more or less fissured and corky by which often irregularly thickened, not lenticellate, often with recurved or sometimes with straight spines, sometimes terminating in a straight spine; branchlets yellow–green and often tinged with red, when living greenish brown, dark brown, reddish–brown, or purplish–brown and often sulcate when dry, pubescent or sometimes glabrous, sometimes (especially when older) fissured like branches.
Corolla when mature 1–2 x as long as the calyx, (3·4)4–5 mm. long, pale green, greenish, white, or greenish–yellow, sparsely pubescent or glabrous outside, inside with a narrow entire white–penicillate corona at the mouth of the tube 1–2 x as long as the lobes, (2)2·5–3 x 2–3 mm., urceolate or campanulate, often somewhat contracted at the throat; lobes triangular, 1–2 x as long as wide, 1·3–2·5 x 1–1·5 mm., acute, erect or suberect.
Sepals pale green, connate at the base, narrowly triangular, equal, subequal, or sometimes unequal, (2)2–5–5 X as long as wide, 2·5 x 0·7–1·3 mm., acuminate or subulate at the apex, not distinctly ciliate, outside pubescent with an even indumentum of mostly erect hairs, inside pubescent at the apex and glabrous at the base or sometimes entirely pubescent, without colleters.
Fruit large, hard, resembling an orange, globose, yellow or orange, often speckled with green, nearly mature dark green and mottled with pale green, when immature often blue–green, often slightly shining, with granular skin, 6–11 cm. in diam., with about 10–100 seeds. Wall rather thick, 2–5 mm. thick, thickened inside above the pedicel. Pulp edible.
Tree or shrub, 2-8 m high. Stems thickly and persistently corky with longitudinal fissures; ultimate twigs rather thick, purplish or brownish, tomentulose; lateral and terminal twigs often converted into spines. Inflorescence terminal. Ovary 2-celled. Fruit large, 70 mm in diameter, many-seeded. Flowers greenish.
Pistil pubescent, 1–8–2–8 mm. long; ovary ovoid, broadly ovoid or globose, 0–8–1–3 times as long as wide, 1–1·6 x 1–1·4 mm., acuminate or rounded at the apex, 2–celled; style mostly very short; stigma oblong, large, up to 0·9 mm. long.
Seeds ochraceous, flattened, more or less plano–convex, obliquely ovate or elliptic, usually irregularly curved, about 1·2–1·6 times as long as wide, 12 x 8 x 2·5–22 x 15 x 4 mm., slightly rough, very shortly pubescent.
Trunk 4–25 cm. in diam., branched from low down; bark pale grey to pale brown, thick, corky, longitudinally ridged, not scaly, nor lenticellate; wood hard, whitish, without bark–islets.
Stamens included, inserted 0·4–1 mm. from the base of the corolla; anthers oblong or elliptic, 1·2–1·5 x 0·8–1·2 mm., ciliate all around, cells parallel.
Deciduous shrub or small tree, (0·30)1–6(8) m. high, sometimes flowering on one–year shoots with small leaves on old fire–cut stumps.
Inflorescence terminal, seemingly umbellate, congested, 2·5–4 x 2·5 cm., mostly many–flowered.
In each cell about (30)50 ovules.
Flowers 5–merous.
