Deciduous tree or shrub, with a rounded crown and up to 10 m in height, strongly spiny and highly branched, especially when shrubby. Trunk well defined, straight or slightly tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, fissured longitudinally. Branches numerous and robust, with strong straight spines 2-7 cm. Young branchlets pubescent, green, also with spines. Leaves coriaceous, alternate, compound, with two leaflets (1)2-5 \u00d7 (0.7)2-3.5 cm, oval-lanceolate, broadly lanceolate or ellipsoid, acute or obtuse, subsessile, somewhat pubescent and dark green on both sides. Inflorescence an irregular cyme, terminal, with 5-12 flowers, arranged on pubescent peduncles variable in length. Floral buds ovoid and tomentose. Individual flowers hermaphrodite, pentamerous and actinomorphic, 8-14 mm in diameter and generally greenish yellow. Pedicels greyish, pubescent, up to 8(10-15) mm long. Calyx with 5 sepals, oval-oblong, pubescent, greenish-whitish. Corolla with 5 petals nearly twice as long as the sepals, linear-lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous, greenish-whitish. Stamens 10-15, inserted on a fleshy dark green central disk, at the centre of which the pistil can be found. Fruit a type of drupe, 1-2.5 cm long, slightly fleshy, ovoid-oblong, silky-pubescent surface and greenish-whitish; when mature it turns brown or light brown, fragile skin and sticky brown or green pulp; it contains a single seed. The fleshy pulp of the ripe or unripe fruit is edible and is eaten fresh or dried; various types of food and beverages are also made from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-12129","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n