| General Information |
| Distribution | Pantropical.In the Hawaiian Islands,
indigenous to
Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Shrub or small tree, 2‒8 m tall; stems virgate, many branched, short-hispidulous or glabrous and usually viscid, bark reddish brown to gray or blackish gray, ± viscid.
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Leaves
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Leaves simple, short-petiolate; blade membranous to chartaceous, sometimes subcoriaceous, elliptic to oblanceolate, spatulate, or lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, (2‒)3‒10(‒15) cm long, (0.5‒)1‒3(‒6) cm wide, glandular punctate and usually irregularly viscid-varnished, sparsely to occasionally densely short-hispidulous on and near veins and margin or sometimes glabrous, margin entire, sometimes slightly revolute or undulate, apex rounded to obtuse or acuminate, usually bluntly mucronate, mucro usually purple tinged, occasionally emarginate, base attenuate to cuneate; petiole 0.1‒1.1 cm long, slightly winged.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences paniculate, usually 1‒5 cm long, pedicel usually 3‒10 mm long, ± short-hispidulous and usually viscid. Flowers unisexual (and the plants dioecious or sometimes andromonoecious or functionally monoecious), sometimes perfect; sepals 4(‒6), oblong-oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1.5‒2.2 mm long, short-hispidulous toward margin to nearly glabrous, persistent; staminate flowers with (7)8(‒10) stamens, anthers 2‒3 mm long, ovary vestigial; pistillate flowers with ovary usually densely short-hispidulous, 2‒4-locular, usually 1 number predominating on a plant but not always in a population, styles 2‒4, 2‒9 mm long.
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Fruit
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Fruit straw colored to dark reddish purple, exceedingly variable, turgid to inflated and bladdery or compressed, body 0.5‒1.5 cm long, 2‒4 winged, wings medially 1‒6 mm wide.
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Seeds
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Seeds compressed-ovoid or subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diameter, blackish.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 28*, 30, 32.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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