From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Shoebutton
Ardisia elliptica
Primrose family (Primulaceae)

Post-Cook introduction

Introduced shrub or small tree with elliptical leathery leaves and many small pinkish starlike flowers, ornamental and becoming naturalized in moist lowland areas. To 20 ft (6 ) high and 3 inches (7.5 ) in trunk diameter. Twigs slightly stout, light green, purplish tinged, hairless.


Forest And Kim Starr
Leaves elliptical, 3-4 1⁄2 inches (7.5–11 ) long, 1–1 1⁄2 inches (2.5–4 ) wide, short-pointed at broadest beyond middle, tapering toward long-pointed base, edges straight, slightly thickened and leathery with side veins not visible, hairless, dull light green on both surfaces, beneath with dots sometimes blackish. Leafstalk is about 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long, purplish, flattened above.

Flower clusters () at base of upper leaves, 1 1⁄2–3 inches (4–7.5 ) long, branched. Flowers many on slender green talks of about 1⁄2 inch (13 ), from pointed pink bud 3⁄8 inch (1 ) long, spreading starlike, composed of cuplike with five rounded whitish with brown dots; with five from short tube spreading starlike about 1⁄2 inch (13 ) wide, pink with brown dots; five inserted near base of with large long-pointed brown united; and with round greenish containing many ovules and with a slender whitish

() many, rounded, becoming 3⁄8 inch (1 ) in diameter, slightly flattened, turning from pink to black, with -dots, and base of remaining, with purplish juice. Seed single, round.

Heartwood is pale brown with large conspicuous darker colored showing prominently on all surfaces. Of moderate density and hardness, with a fine texture; not used.

Planted as an ornamental for the pretty flowers and glossy leaves but escaping and becoming naturalized as a weed in moist lowland areas, especially Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii.

Special area
Waimea Arboretum

Range
Native of southeastern Asia. Widely cultivated through the tropics and becoming naturalized. Introduced and naturalized locally in south Florida.

Other common name
elliptical-leaf ardisia

Botanical
Ardisia solanacea Roxb., A. humilis auth., not Vahl.

The common name apparently refers to the resemblance of the round blackish to buttons formerly worn on ladies’ high-topped shoes.

An evergreen tree retains a large portion of its green leaves all year.

mm -- millimeter. About 1/25th of an inch.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

synonym -- In botany a synonym is a species name that at one time was thought to be the correct name for a plant but was later found to be incorrect and has been replaced by a new name.

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

The apex is the tip or the furthest point from the attachment.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

m -- A meter is about 10% larger than a yard.

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

The anther is a pad at the end of the stamen that holds the pollen.

A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. The bottom flowers in a panicle open first.

lobe -- Rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ). Lobes bulge out about 1/4 of the leaf diameter.

An ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary.

A pistil is the female structure of many flowers. It contains one or more carpels. Each carpel contins an ovary, style and stigma. The stigma receives the pollen which grows thru the style to reach the ovary.

drupe -- A fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a hardened shell containing a seed. A peach is a drupe. A raspberry is composed of drupelets.

ray flowers -- The outer petals of a sunflower or daisy are ray flowers.