From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Tree Heliotrope
Heliotropium arboreum
Heliotrope family (Heliotropiaceae)

Post-Cook introduction

This distinctive small umbrella-shaped tree with very short trunk, low widely forking branches, and very broad rounded spreading of gray green foliage, was introduced on sandy shores. To 20 ft (6 m), with trunk to 1 ft (0.3 m) in diameter and to 40 ft (12 m) across, often flowering as a low shrub. Bark light brown or gray, rough, very thick, deeply furrowed into narrow plates and ridges. Outer bark streaky blackish brown, Inner bark is light brown, fibrous, tasteless. Twigs stout, finely hairy, gray green, becoming brown, with raised half-round leaf scars and buds of small overlapping leaves.


©2018 Zoya Akulova
, crowded near the ends of twigs, gray green, covered with tiny pressed hairs, with short stout leafstalk about 3⁄8 inch (1 ) long. narrowly elliptical or , 3–7 inches (7.5–18 ) long, 1–2 1⁄4 inches (2.5–6 ) wide, thick and slightly succulent, rounded at , widest beyond middle, tapering to long-pointed base, not , with few side veins, dull gray green on both surfaces.

Flower clusters () , 6–8 inches (15 ) long including long stalks, the many branches curved to one side. Flowers many, crowded, stalkless, erect on horizontal curved or coiled branches, bell-shaped, less than 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long and broad, composed of five rounded hairy gray green , white with short hairy tube and five spreading rounded , five tiny in notches of , and with conical and slightly two- .

rounded, flattened, about 1⁄4 inch (6 ) in diameter, smooth and shiny, green, slightly watery, containing two or four large half-round brown 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long, embedded in a corky or spongy mass.

It is reported that in India the leaves are eaten raw. They have a slightly salty flavor and might be served in salads or cooked as greens. The corky mass of may be carried by ocean currents.

This is an ornamental tree planted and hardy along sandy beaches. Scattered on shores through the Hawaiian Islands. Listed by Hillebrand as in cultivation, apparently before his departure in 1871.

Special area
Waimea Arboretum

Champion
Height 32 ft (9.8 m), c.b.h. 31.5 ft (9.6 m), spread 46 ft (14.0 m). Puako Kawaihae, Hawaii (1968).

Range
Native from India in tropical Asia to Mauritius, Malaya, tropical Australia, western Indian Ocean islands, Polynesia, and Micronesia.

Other common names
velvetleaf; hunig (Guam); huni (N. Marianas); aseri (Palau); chel (Yap); chen yamolehat (Truk); titin (Pohnpei); srusrun (Kosrae); kiden (Marshalls); tausuni (Am. Samoa).

Botanical
Tournefortia argentea L. f., Messerschmidia argentea (L. f.) I.M. Johnst.

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

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

stigma - The tip of a pistil that receives the pollen.

leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

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

terminal -- Located at the end (the tip or the apex).

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

cyme -- Multiple flower stalks emerge from a single point and the flowers at the end bloom first.

obovate -- Teardrop-shaped, stem attaches to tapering point.

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.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.

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

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

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

canopy -- The foliage of a tree; the crown. Also the upper layer of a forest.

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.

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

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

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

a small nut. A nut being a hard, dry fruit containing only one seed that does not open at maturity.

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.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.