Azima tetracantha berries

The fruit of Azima tetracantha is a white to yellowish, spherical to ovoid berry. The berries grow in clusters on short stalks among leaves and spines.

The fruit is thinly fleshy around one or two seeds. Fruit diameter is up to 1 cm. The dark mark at the tip of the fruit may sometimes have retained style remains, forming a sharp point. The fruits are seen from midsummer to the end of winter. These fruits may be edible, but don’t take chances.

The flowers preceding the berries grow in lax to dense, branched axillary clusters up to 3 cm long. The flower is small, green to yellow-green. It has a bell-shaped calyx and four recurving petals. The sexes occur on different trees, so the one in picture is a female.

The stamens are positioned in the gaps between the petals, vestigial in female flowers. The male flowers in turn have only vestigial ovaries; fully developed ovaries in female flowers are two-chambered, topped by a short, stubby stigma.

Flowering happens late in spring (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Pooley, 1993).