Flowering and fruiting period: November – April

Distribution: Widely cultivated in South East Asia and East Africa

Habitat: Cultivated

Uses: Fruits edible, timber yielding, jam preparation. The leaves and roots are used to treat diarrhoea due to the high tannin content.

Key Characters: Small trees, 5-10 m high, dioecious; bark pale brown to copper-red. Leaves alternate, oblong-ovate to lanceolate. Flowers in axillary, subcorymbose racemes. Disc faintly lobed, fleshy, white or orange-yellow. Male flowers: stamens numerous, free, glabrous; anthers ellipsoid, versatile, extrorse; pistillode absent. Female flowers: ovary flask-shaped, incompletely 4-6 loculed by false septa; ovules 2 in each locule. Fruit a berry, subglobose, scarlet red or dark purple when ripe.