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    
In the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.

Habit
Trees or occasionally shrubs 2-8 m tall; branches purplish brown to reddish brown, often moderately stout, glabrous.

 

Leaves
Leaves dark green to occasionally yellowish green, young ones reddish to dark reddish purple, clustered at the tips of the branches or sometimes somewhat more spread out along the upper parts of the branches, coriaceous, oblanceolate to elliptic-oblanceolate, occasionally ovate, oblong-oblanceolate, or oblong-elliptic, (4-)5-12(-15.5) cm long, 1.3-5(-7) cm wide, midrib prominent, lateral veins usually inconspicuous, sometimes moderately conspicuous, and then usually 1-5(-6) mm apart, higher order venation reticulate, obscure to visible, but not especially conspicuous, sometimes becoming slightly more conspicuous upon drying, submarginal vein present, usually ca. 1 mm from margin, glabrous, margins entire and slightly revolute, apex obtuse to rounded or occasionally acute, ± emarginate, base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes basal margins slightly recurved near juncture of petiole, petioles flattened, 0-5(-11) mm long. 

Flowers
Flowers apparently perfect or possibly unisexual(?) (and then plants dioecious), 5-15 or more in bracteate fascicles usually arising on woody knobs, pedicels 3-8(-9) mm long, glabrous; calyx lobes ca. 1-1.4 mm long, ciliate; petals green, tinged purple, or sometimes entirely purple, lanceolate, ca. 3-4 mm long, with conspicuous secretory lines; anthers ca. 2-2.5 mm long; stigma capitate-angled, ± fimbriate at base. 

Fruit
Drupes purplish black, globose to broadly ovoid, ca. 8-10 mm in diameter.