(ind) 7'lie‘e, hilie'e, ‘ilihe'e, lauhihi (Ni‘ihau)
Sprawling shrubs; stems 0.5-2.5 m long. Leaves ovate, 3-12.5 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, well-developed on flowering stems, both surfaces glabrous, apex acute to acuminate, base rounded to broadly cuneate, petioles
0.3-1.5 cm long, base auriculate. Flowers in racemes 6-30 cm long, rachis stipitate glandular, bracts small; calyx 7-11 mm long, densely stipitate glandular, glands much longer than those of rachis, ribs dark green; corolla white, the tube 18-23 mm long, the lobes obovate, 6-7 mm long; anthers blue or purple; ovary and style glabrous. Capsules oblong, ca. 4-5 mm long, glabrous. Seed dark purplish brown, ca. 4 mm long. [2n = 16, 28*.] Native to the Old World tropics and Hawaiian Islands; in Hawai‘i occurring in arid, disturbed areas, sand dunes, and dry forest and shrubland, 0-610 m, on all of the main islands.—Plate 151.
According to van Steenis (1949), the original native range of Plumbago zeylanica may not have extended beyond Malesia; this seems doubtful, however, since the densely glandular calyx makes this species well adapted for wide dispersal by migrating shore birds.
This plant was used as “baby medicine” according to specimen label data (1933, Neal s.n., BISH) and apparently the sap was used to blacken tattoos in Hawaii.