Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Vitex rotundifolia
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Lamiaceae -- The Mint Family Bibliography
      Vitex rotundifolia

Common name(s): chaste tree, beach vitex, hinahina kolo, kolokolo kahakai, manawanawa, mawanawana, pohinahina, polinalina (O`ahu)
General Information
DistributionA widespread strand plant from China, Taiwan, and Japan south to Malesia, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Australia, and Pacific islands, cultivated in some areas as a sand binder.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
HabitatSandy beaches, rocky shores, and dunes
Elevation0-15 m
Habit
Low, branched shrub; stems procumbent, often rooting at the nodes, forming mats several m in diameter, side branches ascending to erect, usually 1-3 dm long.
Leaves
Leaves aromatic when crushed, with a sage-like odor, nearly always simple, rarely palmately compound with 2-3 leaflets, obovate to suborbicular, 2-6.5 cm long, 1-4.5 cm wide, upper surface pale green, densely puberulent, lower surface grayish white, densely tomentose, margins entire, apex rounded, rarely some of the upper ones short-acuminate, base attenuate, petioles 0-1 cm long.
Flowers
Flowers usually 3 in cymes aggregated in narrow paniculate inflorescences 3-7 cm long, white or grayish tomentose throughout, bracteoles linear, 1-2 mm long; calyx cup-shaped, 4-4.5 mm long, enlarging somewhat up to ca. 5 mm long in fruit, 5-nerved, 5-toothed, the teeth very short, ca. 0.6-0.7 mm long, very densely white tomentose; corolla bluish purple, narrowly funnelform, densely puberulent externally, the tube ca. 8 mm long, upper 2 lobes ca. 3.5 mm long, margins recurved, lateral lobe ca. 4-4.2 mm long, lower lobe ca. 7.3-7.8 mm long, with 2 white short-pilose markings at base; stamens exserted from corolla tube; filaments ca. 9-10 mm long, pilose toward base; style ca. 12 mm long, exserted from corolla tube.
Fruit
Fruit green, turning yellow and red tinged, becoming bluish black at maturity, slightly depressed-globose, ca. 6 mm in diameter.
Chromosomes
2n = 32, 34*
Contributor
Nancy Khan