Japanese name: モンパノキ（紋羽の木） Scientific name:Heliotropium foertherianum
[Overview]
An evergreen shrub to small tree, 2–10 m tall, found along the coast.
The trunk branches freely from the base, and the bark is gray-brown and deeply fissured lengthwise.
Leaves are simple and alternate, clustered at the branch tips, spoon-shaped oblanceolate, 9–14 cm long and 4–5 cm wide, and fleshy.
The leaves are densely covered with silvery silky hairs.
The leaf base gradually narrows into the leaf stalk.
Scorpioid cymes at the branch tips bear flowers densely.
The inflorescence is densely covered with silvery silky hairs.
The flowers are 0.4 cm across, and the corolla is 5-lobed and white.
The fruit is a spherical drupe 0.4–0.6 cm, changing from orange-yellow to black.
[Uses]
The leaves are used as a folk medicine.
The young shoots are edible.
In Okinawa, the wood is used for the frames of diving goggles.
[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or cuttings.
In the Nansei Islands it can be grown outdoors.
It prefers sunny, well-drained sandy soil.
To enjoy its natural form, it is better not to prune it.
There are no particular pests or diseases.
[Notes]
The Japanese name likens the way the silky hairs grow to velvet (birodo, monpa).
