Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_vitex_rotundifolia
Beach Vitex
Vitex rotundifolia
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About Beach Vitex
A low branched native shrub with prostrate stems rooting at nodes and forming spreading mats. Mostly simple rounded-to-obovate, smooth-edged leaves are pale green above and densely gray-white woolly beneath. Narrow flower clusters bear bluish-purple two-lipped flowers with white hairy marks at the lower-lobe base and projecting stamens. Small rounded fruits ripen bluish black. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Vitex rotundifolia
- Common names
- beach vitex
- Hawaiian names
- kolokolo kahakai · hinahina kolo · mānawanawa · māwanawana · pōhinahina · pōlinalina
- Other names
- Vitex rotundifolia · beach vitex · kolokolo kahakai · hinahina kolo · mānawanawa · māwanawana · pōhinahina · pōlinalina
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Use the predominantly simple-leaved form, rather than a generic compound-leaved Vitex. Pōlinalina is specifically documented from Oʻahu; do not present it as an established Kauaʻi usage.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; 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.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A low branched native shrub with prostrate stems rooting at nodes and forming spreading mats. Mostly simple rounded-to-obovate, smooth-edged leaves are pale green above and densely gray-white woolly beneath. Narrow flower clusters bear bluish-purple two-lipped flowers with white hairy marks at the lower-lobe base and projecting stamens. Small rounded fruits ripen bluish black. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.