Randia armata

Randia armata is a thorny shrub or small tree of the madder family Rubiaceae, widespread across tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas from Mexico and the Caribbean south to Argentina, where it grows in dry forests, thickets and disturbed habitats. Plants reach 2 to 8 metres in height with slender, often horizontally spreading branches. The stems are armed with stout straight or slightly curved paired spines at the nodes (hence armata). Leaves are opposite or clustered on short shoots, ovate to obovate, 3 to 10 centimetres long, with entire margins, glossy dark green above and paler beneath, and shortly petiolate. Flowers are solitary or in small fascicles, fragrant, with a slender white salverform corolla tube 1.5 to 3 centimetres long opening to five spreading lobes; they typically open white and age yellowish. Fruits are subglobose to ovoid berries 2 to 4 centimetres across, ripening from green to yellowish or brown, containing numerous seeds in a fleshy pulp.