Gooseberry tree is native to South America. It occurs in coastal forest and dry limestone woodlands. It grows well in the tropics at low and medium altitudes in places with a short or prolonged dry season. The tree prefers hot, humid tropical lowlands. It flourishes from sea-level up to an altitude of 1,500 - 1,800 meters.

Gooseberry tree is a deciduous tree with an open, sparingly branched, spreading crown; it can grow about 6 - 9 metres tall. The short bole can be 15cm in diameter.

BARK: rough, grey, with prominent lenticels; cataphylls not persistent, blackish-brown, their stipules triangular-ovate; deciduous branchlets ascending, (20-)25-52 cm long, with 25-40 leaves.

LEAVES: pinnate, 20-40 cm long. Leaflets are alternate, simple, entire, shortly petiolate, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (4-)5-9 cm x (2-)2.5-4.5 cm, base obtuse to rounded, apex acute, petiole 2.5-4 mm long, stipules triangular-acuminate.

FLOWERS: small, pink, in dense, cushion-shaped cymules at the nodes of leafless branches on older wood, and usually also on proximal branch-lets of current year’s growth, pale green to reddish; male flowers 4-merous, filaments and anthers free, dehiscing vertically; female flowers on a stout pedicel, 4-merous, disk deeply lobed or split, styles connate, deeply bifid, staminodes present, ovary superior.

FRUIT: drupaceous, oblate, 1-1.5 cm x (1.2-)1.5-2(-2.5) cm when fresh, shallowly 6- or 8-lobed, greenish yellow to creamy-white; flesh firm, sour with a hard, bony, grooved stone containing 6-8 smooth seeds.

Edible: fruits can be cooked or eaten raw, leaves can be cooked as a vegetable. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php id=Phyllanthus+acidus

The bark is used in India as a tanning agent.

An extract from the plant has shown nematicidal activity against the pine wood nematode.

The wood can be used for utensils and other small objects.

The wood can be used as fuel.

An ornamental tree.