Large Fruited Embelia

xylocarpa: with woody fruit

Shrub or small tree. Bark smooth, pale grey, whitish on young branchlets. Leaves clustered at the ends of lateral shoots, which often become spiny, obovate, 3-7.5 cm long, midrib sunken above, prominent below with gland dots present, glabrous; apex rounded often notched; margin serrate in the apical half or sub-entire. Flowers unisexual on different trees dense clusters on old wood and lateral spurs, yellowish-green or slightly reddish. Fruit depressed-globose, c. 1.2 cm in diameter, slightly woody on the outside.

Tanzania, DRC and Mozambique