Branches dichotomous, spreading, glabrous, spines 2-2.5 cm long, stout, mostly straight, sometimes bifurcate. Leaves broadly ovate, 4-8 x 2-3.5 cm, sub-coriaceous, young leaves with pink midribs, margin smooth, base rounded or retuse, apex emarginate. Flowers white, often tinged with pink, c. 2 cm across, bracts subulate, hairy, peduncle pink, c. 1.2-2 cm long. Calyx c. 5 mm long, pubescent, lobes linear. Corolla tube cylindrical, glabrous, swollen and pubescent near the top, 1.5-2 cm long, lobes white tinged with pink, overlapping to the right in bud, lanceolate, acute. Ovary glabrous with 4 ovules in each cell. Fruit 1.25-2.5 cm long, globose, ovoid or ellipsoid berry, when ripe white with red shade then purplish black, having milky juice, 4-8 seeded.

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Type: Rumphins, Herb. Amb. 7, t. 25, 1755.

Distribution: Cultivated throughout India, Ceylon, Burma, Malacca, Pakistan. Possibly native in S.E. Asia.

Fruit edible, also extensively grown as a hedge plant.