Wagner, Warren L., Derral R. Herbst and S. H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i (Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication, 2 Vol. Set). Honolulu, HI

Flora of Hawaii:

Distribution     
Native range unknown, but possibly indigenous to the Himalayas, southeastern Asia, Malesia, and northern Australia, widely spread by early human migrations. In the Hawaiian Islands, a Polynesian introduction on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.

Habit
Shrubs 2-3.5 m tall, stems unbranched or few branched.

Leaves
Leaves green, relatively thin, lanceolate to oblong elliptic, usually 40-80 cm long, 8-16 cm wide, apex acuminate with a mucronate tip, base cuneate; petioles usually 10-18 cm long.  

Flowers
Flowers in paniculate inflorescences ca. 20-30 cm long, each one sessile, subtended by 3 small bracts; tepals white, the outer ones tinged pink, 8-15 mm long, becoming strongly reflexed.  

Fruit
Fruit rarely formed.  

Chromosomes
2n = ca. 152. Many leaf color variants in cultivation. Fruit is rarely formed in Polynesian cultivars with large green leaves.