Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_vitex_pinnata
Malayan Teak
Vitex pinnata
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About Malayan Teak
Malayan Teak (Vitex pinnata) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to South and Southeast Asia to Malesia in seasonally dry to wet tropical forest. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting within the 1910–1960 forestry program; no species-specific year is available from the reviewed index; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence. The 1918–1959 Kauaʻi reforestation working register records 41 plants under Vitex pinnata across 2 entries dated 1957–1958. These are recorded planting quantities, not counts of surviving trees, and they do not by themselves establish current persistence, naturalization, or ecological impact. Source: Kauaʻi Reforestation Plantings 1918–1959 working register (user-supplied; reconciled 6 October 2026).
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Vitex pinnata
- Common names
- Malayan Teak · Laban
- Other names
- Vitex pinnata · Malayan teak · Laban
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current survival on Kauaʻi, number of trees, occupied habitat, flowering or fruiting, recruitment, population trend, and ecological effects are all unconfirmed; no naturalization or invasive severity is inferred from the historical planting record.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Flowers and fleshy drupes provide reproductive structures. The primary treatment reports fruit consumption by birds and lack of seed germination in shade. Kauaʻi flowering, fruit set, viability, and recruitment remain unverified.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Malayan Teak (Vitex pinnata) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to South and Southeast Asia to Malesia in seasonally dry to wet tropical forest. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting within the 1910–1960 forestry program; no species-specific year is available from the reviewed index; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.