Perennial shrub < 5 m tall. Stems are prickly. Leaves are < 25 x 18 cm, broadly ovate and prickly, with chalky-white undersides and upper surface edges. Flowers are small and white, sometimes with mauve veins. Fruits are berry-like and ripen from green to yellow.
To help protect our environment:
Pastures, poor soils, forest margins, gullies, roadsides, wastelands, sand dunes, scrub, plantations.
Seeds dispersed by water, possibly birds and mammals.
Forms dense thickets and reduces pasture and plantation productivity. Poisonous and has sharp spines.
Do not attempt to undertake control of this species. Please report to Auckland Council.
CAUTION: When using any herbicide or pesticide please read the label thoroughly to ensure that all instructions and safety requirements are followed.
Apple of sodom is more common, shorter and more shrubby, spines are shorter and yellow. Its leaves lack the white margins, and it has violet rather than white flowers.
Devil's fig leaf margins lack the white edge and are less lobed.
