Alibertia edulis (Rich.) A. Rich. ex DC.

Garapatica edulis Karst. Fl. Columb. 1: 57. 1859
Alibertia Garapatica K. Schumann, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 6 r : 383. 1889. Cordiera Garapatica Kluntze, Rev. ('.en. 279. 1891.
A shrub or small tree, usually 2-3 meters high, glabrous throughout, the branchlets stout, brownish; stipules deltoid, 3-4 mm. long, acute, brown; petioles stout, 3-8 mm. long; leafblades lance-oblong, oblanceolate-oblong, or elliptic-oblong, 5.5-13 cm. long, 2.5-6 cm. wide, very acute to obtuse and short-decurreut at the base, acute or acutely short-acuminate at the apex, coriaceous, deep-green above, sublustrous, the venation prominent or prominulous, reticulate, paler beneath, the costa slender, prominent, the lateral nerves slender, 7 or 8 on each side, arcuate-ascending, the margin plane; staminate flowers ^lonuraie-cymose, few or numerous, greenish-white, the pistillate flowers few, subcapitate; calyx and hypanthium 1.5 mm. long, the calyx very short, truncate or obscurely denticulate; corolla-tube 6-7 mm. long, stout, the lobes 3 mm. long, rounded-ovate, acuminateapiculate; fruit globose, about 1 cm. in diameter, black; seeds thin, 6 mm. long.
TYPB LOCALITY: .Near Tomaraznn and Chiriguana, southeastern base of the Cordillera le Santa Marti . Colombia.
DISTRIBUTION: Panama and northern Colombia.

Alibertia edulis (Rich.) A. Rich.; DC. Prodr. 4: 443. 1830
Gen i pa edulis Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 107. 1792.
Gardenia edulis Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 2: 708. 1812.
Cordiera edulis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 279. 1891.
Sabicea edulis Seem.; B. D. Jackson, Ind. Kew. 772, as synonym. 1895.
Alibertia longistipulata Rilev, Kew Bull. 1927: 122. 1927.
Alibertia panamensis Riley, Kew Bull. 1927: 123. 1927.
A shrub or small tree, rarely as much as 6 meters high, the branchlets stout, terete, glabrous, the internodes elongate; stipules lance-triangular or deltoid, 8-18 mm. long, acute or attenuate-acuminate, striate, glandular within; petioles very stout, 2-12 mm. long, glabrous; leaf-blades lance-oblong to ovate-oblong or oval-ovate, 6-20 cm. long, 2-7 cm. wide, acute to rounded at the base, usually short-acuminate at the apex, sometimes long-attenuate, coriaceous to firm-membranaeeous, lustrous above, glabrous, the venation usually prominulous, paler beneath, dull or sublustrous, usually short-barbate in the axils of the nerves, elsewhere glabrous, the costa stout, prominent, the lateral nerves very slender, 8-12 on each side, subarcuate, the margin plane; staminate inflorescence usually 6-8-flowered, the flowers white, sessile, the hypanthium and calyx 4—7 mm. long, the hypanthium turbinate, the calyx denticulate, glabrous or puberulent, the corolla about 2.5 cm. long, minutely sericeous outside, the 5 (rarely 4) lobes ovate or lance-oblong, acute or acuminate, sericeous within, half as long as the tube or longer; anthers subsessile, 9 mm. long; pistillate flowers solitary, sessile or subsessile, the ovary 4-cflled, the calyx 4 mm. long, puberulent or glabrate, denticulate, the corolla 2-3 cm. long, sericeous outside, the lobes lanceolate to ovate, attenuate or acuminate, about as long as the tube; stigma-lobes 4; fruit globose, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, yellowish, smooth; seeds suborbicular, 5 mm. broad, brownish, finely striate.

The unripe fruit of Alibertia edulis

Alibertia edulis is a species of tree in the family Rubiaceae. It is native to the tropical forests of the Americas.