Dovyalis is a genus of plants in the family Salicaceae that is native to Africa and Sri Lanka. It includes 19 species, some of which are cultivated for their fruit.
Description
Species of the genus Dovyalis are dense, thorny plants growing to 3–6 m tall, with sharp, 3–6 cm long stem spines in the leaf axils. Buds at the base of the spine produce clusters of alternately arranged simple ovate leaves 3–10 cm long.
The flowers are inconspicuous, solitary or clustered, with no petals. They are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fruit is an edible, yellow to purple globose berry 2–4 cm diameter, containing several small seeds. They are very juicy and with an acidic flavour.
Taxonomy
The genus was erected in 1841 by Scottish botanist George Arnott Walker Arnott in Journal of botany :being a second series of the Botanical miscellany. Arnott attributed the authorship of the genus to German botanist Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer.
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