atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

GOODENIACEAE (Nau paka Family)
Scaevola taccada (Gaertn .) Roxb. " scaevola" , "saltbush",
" half-flower " ; "beach naupaka" (Hawaii)
emet, emed, emit (B)(N); te mao (K); gasu, gahu (T)
syns. S. sericea var. taccada Makino; S. frutescens sensu auct. non (Mill.)
Krause; S. frutescens var. sericea (F0rst.f.) Merr. (nom. nud.); S. koenigii
Vahl; S. lobelia Murr.; Lobelia taccada Gaertn.; L. koenigii (Vahl) Wight
Indigenous. Trop. Asia to Hawaii. Very abundant. Erect freely branching,
spreading, somewhat succulent, soft-wooded, pithy-stemmed glabrous to pubescent shrub,
up to about 2 m high, with leaves spiralled or crowded near the ends of the branches;
leaves, 8 to 26 cin long and 3 to 12 cm wide, alternate, obovate to oblong-spathulate,
apex rounded (obtuse) or emarginate, base cuneate-decurrent, margins somewhat wavy or
obscurely toothed or crenate, glabrous or somewhat puberulent, slightly fleshy, light
bright green, the midrib sometimes faintly purplish, venation obscure; petiole, short, up
to 15 mm long, broad, winged by decurrent blade margins with a basal tuft of sulky
white hairs in the leaf axil; inflorescence, a fragrant axillary forking 3- to 9-flowered
cymose cluster, 2 to 5 cin long, the peduncles 0.5 to 2 cm long; calyx, 5 to 12 mm long
including acute lobes, 5 to 10 lnln long; corolla, 12 to 22 mm long, the tube, 10 to 15
mm long, white to greenish or purplish, the limb, 5 to 10 mm long, spreading, white or
pale green without, and purple-veined or brown-bordered, the lobes with membrana-
ceous, sometimes fimbriate or erose margins, asymmetrical, appearing to be split in two
with only half the petals remaining; fruit, 10 to 18 mm in diameter when fresh, drying to
7 to 13 mm, 2-celled, subglobose, bluntly costate, fleshy, white; seeds, 1 or 2. Abundant
in strand vegetation; dominant species and one of first colonizers on strip-mined areas.
Wood considered good for smoking (cooking) fish and the black noddy bird (an important
delicacy at feasts); hollow sticks used as "guns" to shoot gum balls (egato) and small
balls carved from pandanus; inner bark used in the past to make headbands which
resembled noddy-bird feathers and which were worn for traditional dances; leaves used to
wrap food in and to cover the earth oven (eom, eyom); Scaevola and Guettarda speciosa
(iut) flowers the first flowers smelled by returning sailors; flowers used in garlands and
either added directly, or boiled with coconut oil to scent it; leaves crushed to yield a
juice to retards loss of hair and cure rashes; inner bark scraped to yield medicine for
abscesses or boils, and white ripened fruit squeezed into eyes as a "pre-eye-drops" cure
for conjunctivitis. 2, 3(58622, 58761), 5(30), 6, 7(27801).