| General Information |
| Distribution | Probably native to the West Indies, now widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Midway, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Malodorous, erect, branched shrubs usually 2-3 m tall, sometimes subscandent and stems up to 10 m long; stems and branches conspicuously armed with stout recurved prickles or sometimes only rigidly pubescent or slightly prickly.
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Leaves
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Leaves chartaceous, ovate to oblong, 2-12 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, upper surface conspicuously reticulate rugose and scabrous, lower surface sparsely short pilose or strigillose, sometimes glabrate; petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers in capitate, hemispherical heads arising in the leaf axils, shorter than or slightly surpassing the subtending leaves, not elongating after anthesis, peduncles 2-9 cm long, bracts oblong or lanceolate, 4-7 mm long; calyx ca. 3 mm long; corolla usually opening yellow, sometimes orange, turning rose, scarlet, pink, orange, reddish orange, or rarely white, the tube ca. 10 mm long, the lobes 3-4 mm long.
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Fruit
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Fruit purple or black, drupaceous, ca. 3 mm in diameter.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 22, 24, 32 34, 36, 38, 40, 44, 55, 66.
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