Randia armata (Sw.) DC.

Randia armata (Sw.) DC. Prodr. 4: 387. 1830
Mussaenda spinosa Jacq. Sel. Stirp. Am. 70. 1763.
Gardenia tetracantka Lam. Encyc. 2: 609. 1786. (Not Randia tetracantha DC. 1830.) Gardenia armata Sw. Prodr. 51. 1788. Solena armata D. Dietr. Syn. PI. 1: 800. 1839. Randia ovata Duchass.; Griseb. Bonplandia 6: 8. 1858. Randia dioica Karst . Fl. Columb. 2: 127. 1866. Randia hondensis Karst. Fl. Columb. 2: 128. 1866.
Randia spinosa Karst. Fl. Columb. 2: 128. 1866. Not 7?. spinosa Poir. 1811. Basanacantha spinosa K. Schum. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 6 6 : 376. 1889. Basanacantha armala Hook, f.; B. D. Jackson, Ind. Kew. 277. 1893.
Basanacantha spinosa var. guatemalensis K. Schum.; Loesener, Verh. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brand. 65: 110. 1923.
A shrub or small tree, 1 to rarely 6 meters high, the trunk sometimes 7 cm. in diameter, the branches gray or brownish, lenticellate, the branches usually slender, divaricate, leafy at the apex, glabrate, usually bearing at the apex 4 stout spines 0.6-2.5 cm. long; stipules broadly ovate, 3-8 mm. long, mucronulate-acuminate, usually imbricate, thin, brownish, glabrous, often glandular within; petioles slender, 0.5-2 cm. long, puberulent or glabrate; leaf-blades variable in outline, mostly ovate, oblong-ovate, oval, or obovate, 6-22 cm. long, 2-10.5 cm. wide, acute or abruptly acuminate, acute or acuminate at the base, membranaceous, brightgreen above, glabrous or sparsely puberulent, the venation plane or prominulous, paler beneath, puberulent or minutely appressed-pilose along the nerves or glabrate, the lateral nerves prominent or prominulous, about 7 on each side, subarcuate, ascending; flowers dioecious, slender-pedicellate, 2-8 at the end of each branchlet, the pedicels glabrous or puberulent ; calyx and hypanthium glabrous or puberulent, the 5 calyx-lobes linear, lanceolate, or obovateoblong, 4-9 mm. long, acute or acuminate, often eiliate; corolla white or ochroleucous, glabrous outside or sparsely pilose or short-villous, the tube about 2.5 cm. long, the throat naked, the
5 lobes rhombic-obovate, 1 cm. long, obtuse; anthers inserted in the corolla-throat, 3-6 mm. long, apiculate; fruit oval or subglobose, 1.5-3.5 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. thick, umbonate, smooth or obscurely costate, glabrous or sparsely puberulent, the pulp at maturity black, sweetish, edible; seeds numerous, suborbicular, 4-6 mm. broad, brown.
Type locality: Cartagena, Colombia.
I >iSTRiBUTION : Usually in dry thickets at low elevations, western coast of Mexico from southern Lower California to Oaxaca, and throughout the lowlands of Central America; Santa Lucia; Guadeloupe and Martinique (?); southward in South America to Argentina.