Information

An evergreen tree 2-7 m tall with thick fissured bark. Branchlets thick, rough and corky, swollen at the nodes, but the ultimate twigs 2-4 mm diam. about midway, with a rather thick waxy splitting skin and persistent slightly prominent suberect leaf-bases. Leaves coriaceous rigid, usually glabrous, with a pungent point, ovate to ovate-oblong or oblong-elliptic, 1 • 5-6 • 5 cm long and 0 ? 7-3 cm broad, narrowing somewhat to the apex where the midrib is excurrent as a pungent, 2-4 mm long spine, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base into a thick 1-4 mm long petiole, nerves 3-5 from the base, the marginal pair sometimes obscure or absent, midrib prominent beneath, the rest slender but prominent on both surfaces. Cymes axillary, clustered, subsessile, simple or compound, about 1 • 5 cm long, each branch 3-flowered; peduncles and pedicels short, pubescent; bracts ovate-oblong, concave, about 1-5 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed (sometimes 4-lobed) to the base, lobes somewhat unequal, imbricate, broadly ovate with a short acuminate apex, ciliate. Corolla greenish, 5-lobed to about midway, glabrous outside with a dense fringe of hairs in a ring at the mouth of the tube; tube about 3 mm long; lobes about 3 mm long, thick with thick margins and an incurved apex. Stamens glabrous, erect; filaments short, triangular, inserted in the mouth of the tube; anthers about 1-75 mm long. Ovary 2-celled with a ring of long hairs where it narrows into the style, ovary plus style about 4 mm long; stigma terminal. Fruit green or bluish-green turning yellow brown, globose, up to 10 cm diam., many seeded, rind thick (3-4 mm thick), woody; seeds up to 2-7 cm diam., embedded in yellowish pulp which has a strong smell, testa becoming hard and not shrinking with the endosperm (as in S. innocua subsp. dysophylla).

Information

An evergreen tree 2-7 m tall with thick fissured bark. Branchlets thick, rough and corky, swollen at the nodes, but the ultimate twigs 2-4 mm diam. about midway, with a rather thick waxy splitting skin and persistent slightly prominent suberect leaf-bases. Leaves coriaceous rigid, usually glabrous, with a pungent point, ovate to ovate-oblong or oblong-elliptic, 1 • 5-6 • 5 cm long and 0 ? 7-3 cm broad, narrowing somewhat to the apex where the midrib is excurrent as a pungent, 2-4 mm long spine, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base into a thick 1-4 mm long petiole, nerves 3-5 from the base, the marginal pair sometimes obscure or absent, midrib prominent beneath, the rest slender but prominent on both surfaces. Cymes axillary, clustered, subsessile, simple or compound, about 1 • 5 cm long, each branch 3-flowered; peduncles and pedicels short, pubescent; bracts ovate-oblong, concave, about 1-5 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed (sometimes 4-lobed) to the base, lobes somewhat unequal, imbricate, broadly ovate with a short acuminate apex, ciliate. Corolla greenish, 5-lobed to about midway, glabrous outside with a dense fringe of hairs in a ring at the mouth of the tube; tube about 3 mm long; lobes about 3 mm long, thick with thick margins and an incurved apex. Stamens glabrous, erect; filaments short, triangular, inserted in the mouth of the tube; anthers about 1-75 mm long. Ovary 2-celled with a ring of long hairs where it narrows into the style, ovary plus style about 4 mm long; stigma terminal. Fruit green or bluish-green turning yellow brown, globose, up to 10 cm diam., many seeded, rind thick (3-4 mm thick), woody; seeds up to 2-7 cm diam., embedded in yellowish pulp which has a strong smell, testa becoming hard and not shrinking with the endosperm (as in S. innocua subsp. dysophylla).

Information

An evergreen tree 2-7 m tall with thick fissured bark. Branchlets thick, rough and corky, swollen at the nodes, but the ultimate twigs 2-4 mm diam. about midway, with a rather thick waxy splitting skin and persistent slightly prominent suberect leaf-bases. Leaves coriaceous rigid, usually glabrous, with a pungent point, ovate to ovate-oblong or oblong-elliptic, 1 • 5-6 • 5 cm long and 0 ? 7-3 cm broad, narrowing somewhat to the apex where the midrib is excurrent as a pungent, 2-4 mm long spine, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base into a thick 1-4 mm long petiole, nerves 3-5 from the base, the marginal pair sometimes obscure or absent, midrib prominent beneath, the rest slender but prominent on both surfaces. Cymes axillary, clustered, subsessile, simple or compound, about 1 • 5 cm long, each branch 3-flowered; peduncles and pedicels short, pubescent; bracts ovate-oblong, concave, about 1-5 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed (sometimes 4-lobed) to the base, lobes somewhat unequal, imbricate, broadly ovate with a short acuminate apex, ciliate. Corolla greenish, 5-lobed to about midway, glabrous outside with a dense fringe of hairs in a ring at the mouth of the tube; tube about 3 mm long; lobes about 3 mm long, thick with thick margins and an incurved apex. Stamens glabrous, erect; filaments short, triangular, inserted in the mouth of the tube; anthers about 1-75 mm long. Ovary 2-celled with a ring of long hairs where it narrows into the style, ovary plus style about 4 mm long; stigma terminal. Fruit green or bluish-green turning yellow brown, globose, up to 10 cm diam., many seeded, rind thick (3-4 mm thick), woody; seeds up to 2-7 cm diam., embedded in yellowish pulp which has a strong smell, testa becoming hard and not shrinking with the endosperm (as in S. innocua subsp. dysophylla).