There are trees in Riverside, Calif. and San Bernardino County. Plants can easily adapt to pot culture in well-draining, limed soil. Can be pruned to any desired shape, but grows best as a managed shrub. Multiple or single trunks which can be trained. Occasionally, bushes appear to be composed of canes.
Branches are brittle, and easily broken.
Leaves may be irritating to some people. Acerola leaves are dark to light green, glossy when mature, obviate to lanceolate, with minute hairs which can be irritating. Foliage will drop during water stress, but recovers well with flush and flowering. The flowers are sessile or on short-peduncled cymes, with small pink to white flowers with five petals. Flowering can occur throughout the year, but is typically in cycles associated with rain.