Shrubs 1-2 m tall, sparingly armed, densely pubescent overall with many-rayed, grayish stellate hairs; prickles stout, recurved, reddish or pale-yellow. Leaves solitary or paired, ovate or elliptic, 6-16(-19) cm long, 4-11(-13) cm wide, apex acute, base cordate or cuneate, entire, sinuate, or 5-7-lobed, with yellow, many-branched stellate hairs on both sides, sometimes armed; petiole 2-4 cm. Inflorescences mostly 1- or 2-branched, many-flowered, racemose; pedicel dark, slender, 5-12 mm, with simple glandular hairs and sometimes stalked stellate hairs. Flowers andromonoecious; calyx pubescent as the pedicel, cupular, 4-5 mm long, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm long; corolla white, 1-1.5 cm long, the lobes ovate lanceolate, 0.8-1 cm long; filaments 1 mm long, anthers 4-7 mm long; slender; ovary with short, erect, simple, glandular hairs on the apex. Berry yellow, mucilaginous, 1-1.5 cm across, smooth, glabrous; seeds discoid, 1.5-2 mm across.
ILAN: Wucheih. Hsiaowei to Tapu, Wang & Lin 1490. HSINCHU: Hengshan, Peng 13297; Emei, Wang 728. NANTOU: Shenmu Village, Peng 6576. KAOHSIUNG: Taoyuan, Liu 427. PINGTUNG: D’Arcy 19281; Wutoushan, Wang 1024.
Native of the Caribbean, widely naturalized in tropical regions. Taiwan, roadsides and waste places at low elevation.
The berries, mature or immature, often blacken with age.
