Description: Shrub or woody vine, clambering or sometimes twining, much branched, 2-8 metres in length, with abundant milky latex. Stems grayish, cylindrical, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves in whorls of 3 or 4; blades 8-13 × 1.5-3.5 cm, oblong, elliptical, coriaceous, the apex acuminate, the base acute, the margins undulate and revolute; upper surface glabrous, dark green, shiny, with a prominent mid-vein; lower surface yellowish green, with the mid-vein thickened; petioles 5-10 mm long; stipules transformed into 4 small intrapetiolar glands. Flowers arranged in axillary cymes. Calyx greenish, 5 lanceolate sepals, 12-18 mm long; corolla infundibuliform, yellow, the tube 7-9 cm long, the limb approximately 8 cm in diameter, with five rounded, revolute lobes. Capsules ellipsoid, covered with numerous spines, infrequent; seeds numerous, oval, compressed, 1.2-1.5 cm long, with a discolorous, wing-like margin

Habitat:  Iit is widely naturalized and cultivated as an ornamental in warm, tropical and subtropical climates around the world, including Australia, Africa, China, Central America, West Indies, and numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean

Distribution: A. cathartica is native to South America including Brazil, French Guyana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela

Uses:  Ornamental; medicinal