| General Information |
| Distribution | Probably native to Ethiopia, long-cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world and often naturalizing.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Shrub or small tree, usually 2‒5 m tall, nodes somewhat swollen.
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Leaves
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Leaves short-petiolate; blade chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glossy adaxially, elliptic to ovate elliptic, 7‒20 cm long, (2‒)3.5‒7 cm wide, secondary veins 9‒11 on each side, brochidodromous, these converging at the margins to form an undulate submarginal vein, glabrous, margin entire, undulate, apex long-acuminate, sometimes falcate, base cuneate to rounded or obtuse, sometimes decurrent; petiole 0.8‒1.5 cm long; stipules 3‒7(‒12) mm long, triangular, acute or acuminate, aristate, persistent.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences dense, axillary, subsessile clusters. Flowers in cymose clusters of 2‒10, fragrant when fresh; calyx minutely toothed; corolla white, 2‒2.5 cm long, glabrous, tube ca. 1 cm long, lobes 5(6), oblong, 12‒15 mm long.
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Fruit
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Fruit with (1)2 pyrenes, red or yellow in some cultivars, drying black to brown or olive-brown, narrowly ovoid to ellipsoid, 1.0‒1.6 cm long, 0.9‒1.4 cm in diameter; pyrenes semi-ellipsoid, plano-convex, 8‒12 mm long.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 22, 44, 66, 88.
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Contributor
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David Lorence
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