Carissa macrocarpa
amatungulu, Natal plum
petiole 1–6 mm, glabrous;
blade ovate, elliptic, oblong, or orbiculate, 1.3–7.2 × 0.9–5.3 cm, coriaceous, base cordate to cuneate, margins revolute, apex acute or mucronate, glabrous.
3–4 mm, glabrous.
3–4 mm, glabrous.
calyx lobes ovate to narrowly oblong, auriculate, 2–4.5(–7) mm, glabrous, colleters present or absent;
corolla glabrous abaxially, eglandular-pubescent adaxially, tube 5–10 × 1.5–2 mm, throat 5–12 × 2.5–3 mm, lobes spreading, obliquely obovate, (4.5–)10–24 × 4–7 mm.
2.7–6 × 2–3 cm.
4–6 × 3–4.5 mm.
= 22.
Carissa macrocarpa
The stout, dichotomously branched spines readily distinguish Carissa macrocarpa from all other North American members of Apocynaceae. Plants are widely cultivated as ornamentals and for hedges in warmer parts of the United States and have become naturalized in a few coastal counties in Florida and Texas. The flesh of the fruit is edible when fully ripe, but unripe fruits, seeds, and all vegetative parts of the plant are toxic.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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