| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to Florida, the West Indies, and South America.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Large shrubs or trees up to ca. 10 m tall; stems with conspicuous stilt roots, often forming impenetrable thickets.
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Leaves
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Leaves coriaceous, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 5-15 cm long, (2.5-)3.5-7 cm wide, midrib prominent, glabrous, apex obtuse to rounded, base cuneate, petioles 1-2.5 cm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers 2-3 in simple cymes, peduncles 30-40 mm long, pedicels 4-10 mm long, bracteoles scale-like; calyx yellow, fleshy, 10-15 mm long, the lobes lanceolate, involute, keeled within, becoming recurved at maturity; petals pale yellow, linear-lanceolate, 8-10 mm long, involute above middle, villous within and along margins; stamens 8, caducous.
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Fruit
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Fruit greenish brown, 1-celled, leathery, pendent, 2-3 cm long, the surface slightly roughened.
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Seeds
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Seed 1, germinating in the persistent fruit with the fusiform-clavate hypocotyl protruding before detachment from the plant, hypocotyl up to 25 cm long.
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