| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to the Neotropics, now widely cultivated and naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas of the world.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Ni`ihau, 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, 2‒6 m tall; young branches terete, sparsely puberulent when young, soon glabrate.
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Leaves
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Leaves petiolate; blade obovate to elliptic-obovate, 3.5‒13.5 cm long, (2.5‒)3‒6 cm wide, leathery, secondary veins 7‒9 on each side, scarcely raised on both surfaces, glabrous or glabrate, apex bluntly cuspidate, base attenuate to cuneate; petiole 5‒10 mm long.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences usually solitary in the leaf axils. Flowers on pedicel 3‒8 mm long; sepals ca. 4‒5 mm long, persistent in fruit; petals white, obovate, ca. 5‒7 mm long.
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Fruit
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Fruit red to purplish red or sometimes yellow, globose to obovoid or ellipsoid, glossy and smooth, 2‒3 cm in diameter, pulp white.
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Seeds
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Seeds ca. 5 mm long, tan or cream colored, smooth.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 88.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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