Naupaka kauhakai

Wildlife & Habitat

Scaevola taccada

Indigenous. Perennial. Shrubs usually grow clumped close to the ground, but can grow up to 3 m tall. Leaves simple, alternate, crowded at stem tips, blades fleshy and succulent, surfaces glossy. Flowers several, in short axillary cymes. Corolla white to pale yellow. Split along one side and 5-lobed. Fruit a fleshy white, subglobose drupe, tolerant of salt water and buoyant, thus easily dispersed, moving along with the currents and tides around the tropical portions of the Pacific Basin.

On Midway, naupaka flowers from July through November. Fruits appear by mid-August, with an abundance in September. Some fruits can be found in December. Occurring throughout tropical and subtropical Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts; found on all the major archipelagoes of Polynesia and Micronesia. In Hawai'i, common in coastal sites throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago, except Gardner Pinnacles, Necker, and Nihoa. One of the most common littoral shrubs, often forming dense thickets on rocky and sandy coasts.

Facts About Naupaka kauhakai

Shrubs usually grow clumped, close to the ground.