Fried Egg Flower

spinosa: spiny

Glabrous shrub or small tree, to 5 m. Branches with pale lenticels and sharp axillary spines to 5 cm Leaves elliptic, ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic; base abruptly cuneate; apex acuminate; margin serrate or serrate-crenate. Sepals 1.5 cm, 4, concave, shortly united at base. Petals c.2 × as long as sepals, 8-10, white. Fruit c.5 cm in diameter, spherical, dark green or finally brown, smooth with c.8 faint longitudinal lines; old calyx persistent at base. Seeds c.6 × 4 mm, brown, shiny.

Occasional

From Arabia southwards through tropical Africa to S Africa