White stopper is a shrub or small evergreen tree growing up to 7 metres tall.
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use for its edible fruit and useful wood. It is grown as a street tree and is occasionally cultivated in gardens for fruit and as a hedge
White Stopper is a shrub that grows up to 6 m (20 ft) tall. It is native to Bermuda, Florida and the West Indies. White Stopper was once common and thrived in the shade of the original Bermudian forest, below taller trees like Bermuda Cedars and Palmettos. White Stopper is now rare due to forest clearing and competition from invasive species.
White Stopper gets its name from the white colour of the bark on its trunk. The leaves of White Stopper are about 5 cm (2 inches) long with smooth edges and rounded tips. The leaves are often affected by damage from leaf-boring insects, which appears as light coloured (usually yellow) patches in the middle of the leaf.
White Stopper flowers in summer and autumn. The flowers are small and white, and resemble the flowers of the Surinam Cherry which is related. The flowers are followed by small round fruit about 1cm or ½ inch in diameter. The fruit are green when they appear in the autumn and turn purplish black as they ripen over the winter. Many plants in Bermuda do not produce flowers and fruit.
