Fruit, Vegetable
Edible parts - Fruit, Seeds, Spice, Vegetable, Flowers
A shrub. It grows up to 2-6 m tall. It has short thorns. It can grow up to 10 m tall. Usually trees lose their leaves at one season during the year. The trunk is covered by reddish-brown bark. Trees often sucker near the base. The leaves are opposite, entire and 8 cm x 1.5 cm. Leaves narrow towards the base. It has large scarlet flowers. These are at the ends of branches. 1-3 flowers occur together. The fruit is round, leathery skinned and up to 10 cm across. It is yellow brown in colour. Inside there are angular hard seeds in a juicy yellow pulp. The seeds are 10 mm long. There are many named varieties.