Espino, Guayabo Tree, usually less than 10 m tall, branched from near ground, often with sucker shoots, the branches often vinelike, armed with stout branch-spines (spines terminating branches) to 5 cm long; stems appressed-pubescent when young, glabrate in age. Stipules lanceolate, to 12 mm long, appressed-pubescent, caducous; petioles 1-2 cm long, pilose above, appressed-pubescent below; blades narrowly elliptic to ovate or obovate-elliptic, acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 6-16 cm long, 2.5-6.5 cm wide, sparsely pubescent (the trichomes denser on veins), sericeous below when young, with tufts of trichomes in lower vein axils below. Inflorescences cymose, axillary, usually spreading, appressed-puberulent, to 7 cm long, bracteate; bracts 5-10 mm long, appressed-pubescent outside, ciliate; peduncles slender, to 3 cm long; flowers sessile; calyx truncate, 2-3 mm long, cupular, appressed-pubescent; corolla narrowly tubular, 2-2.5 cm long, white, shallowly 4-lobed, the lobes spreading, rounded at apex, ca 5 mm long, sericeous outside; anthers 4, sessile, ca 3 mm long, attached just below rim of corolla; pollen golden; style slender, to 2.5 cm long, equaling lobes, exserted above throat at anthesis; stigma globular. Berries globose, l-3 cm diam, densely short-velutinous, red at maturity, the exocarp thin, the mesocarp sweet and fleshy, 4-loculed; seeds 1 per locule. Croat 6061, 15160. Frequent in the forest. Flowers mostly in late June and early July. The fruits mature mostly by September but often later; they have been observed being eaten during November (J. Oppenheimer, pers. comm.). Sporadic flowering may occur at other times, especially at the beginning of the dry season, with the fruits maturing in the late dry or early rainy seasons.