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A thorny semi-evergreen shrub. It grows 3-6 m high. It has a single straight trunk. The branches droop to give a rounded crown. The bark is dark grey and deeply grooved. Branches zigzag and are hairy. They have single or paired, dark brown thorns 2 cm long. In a pair, one is straight and one is curved backwards. Leaves are alternate along the stem. They are oval and leathery. Their length varies from 5-8 cm. The leaf base is unequal. Leaves are shiny green on top and hairy and orange yellow below. There are 2-3 clear veins. The leaf has a finely toothed edge and a short hairy stalk. Flowers are green or yellow in small star like heads. They are 1-2 cm across on stalks 1 cm long. The flowers have an unpleasant sharp smell. Fruit are rounded and 2-3 cm across. They are smooth and ripen to a shiny red-brown. There are 1-2 seeds inside a stone. The flesh of the fruit is edible.
Leaf-lamina 5–11 × 3–8 cm., ovate-oblong to elliptic, apex rounded to acute, margin serrulate, base cordate or rounded, very asymmetric, basal nerves 3–5 with only the mid-nerve extending to the apex, prominent below and deeply impressed above, upper surface sparingly pubescent when young, rapidly becoming glabrous except for the main nerves, lower surface persistently grey-or rusty-tomentose; petiole 3–12 mm. long, tomentose; stipules spinescent, one straight and one hooked at each node, or both hooked.
Cymes rusty-tomentose, few-to many-flowered, subsessile or pedunculate; peduncle up to 1 cm. long; pedicels 0·5–4(9) mm. long.
Shrub or small tree up to 13 m. tall; bark greyish, rough; branchlets tomentose or glabrescent.
Ovary 2-locular; style short, hardly projecting beyond the disk, obscurely 2-lobed.
Petals unguiculate, with concave circular lamina 1 mm. in diam.
Fruit crimson when ripe, up to 3 cm. in diam., 2-seeded.
Branchlets and underside of leaves with fawn indumentum
Sepals 1·5 mm. long, deltate, rusty-tomentose outside.
Disk glabrous, 2 mm. in diam., obscurely 5–10-lobed.
A shrub, sometimes scandent, to 12 ft. high
Stamens with filaments up to 2 mm. long.
Seeds brown, 8 × 7 × 2 mm., compressed.
Fruits deep purple-brown.
Flower yellow-green
Purple-brown bark
