Solanum anguivi Lam.

anguivi: slender and curved, referring to the prickles

Erect woody herb or shrub, up to c. 4 m tall. Stems and leaves armed with straight or somewhat curved spines, yellowish to brownish, sometimes purple near the base, up to 13 mm long, branches often purple tinged. All parts covered in stellate hairs. Leaves rhombic-ovate, elliptic or lanceolate, thinly stellate hairy above, densely so below. The central ray of the stellate hairs often much longer than the lateral rays. Leaf margin subentire to triangularly lobed. Prickles usually present on the midrib and main veins. Flowers in up to 20-flowered racemose heads. Corolla pale mauve or purple to almost whitish, star-shaped. Fruits 6-12 mm in diameter, spherical, green, turning yellow and glossy orange-red when ripe. Edible when mature.

Widespread in tropical Africa and S Africa as far as the KwaZulu-Natal. Also in the Arabian Peninsula, Aldabra, Comoro, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.