Botany
Erect, glabrous, unbranched shrub growing to a height of 5 meters. Leaves are crowded at the end of the stems,spreading and short-petioled, oblanceolate with a cordate base and an acute apex. Blade is coriaceous and dark-green, coarsely toothed growing to more than 25 cm long. Fruit is ovoid, angular, up to 4 cm long, on short peduncles and crowded at the axils of the leaves. The leaves and fruits leave a pattern of scars on the trunk.

Distribution
Endemic, widely distributed in thickets at low altitudes.
Occasionally planted for its ornamental leaves.

Parts utilized
Leaves

Constituents
Phytochemical extracts: Flavonoids, unsaturated sterol and triterpene, steroid glycoside, saponin, tannin and phenol. (Source)

Uses
Nutrition
Yound shoots are edible.
Folkloric
Decoction of leaves used for kidney stones and diabetes.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Occasionally planted for ornamental use.