Vitex rotundifolia (roundleaf chastetree, "Hamago")

Japanese name: ハマゴウ （蔓荊、浜栲、浜香）
Scientific name: Vitex rotundifolia

[Overview]
A small deciduous shrub 30–70 cm tall that grows in colonies on sandy or gravelly seashores.
The whole plant is fragrant.
The stem has 4 ridges, grows long, branches, and spreads by creeping through the sand.
The branches are ascending or erect.
Young branches are densely covered with short grayish white hairs.
The leaves are simple and opposite, broadly ovate to elliptic, 3–6 cm long and 2–4 cm wide, densely covered with fine hairs, grayish green on the upper surface and grayish white on the underside.
The leaf margins are entire.
The petiole is 0.5–1 cm long.
Short panicles 4–6 cm long are produced at the branch tips, densely covered with short grayish white hairs together with the calyx.
The flowers are pale bluish purple, and the corolla is funnel-shaped, 1.2–1.6 cm long, with the tip divided into 5 lobes in two lips.
The outside of the corolla has short white hairs.
There are 4 stamens, which protrude out of the flower.
The fruit is a grayish brown sphere 5–7 mm in diameter; the pericarp is corky and light, and the fruit is dispersed by floating on seawater.

[Uses]
The fruit is called mankeishi and is used as a crude drug.
It was also used as a bath additive and as pillow stuffing.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
Sunny, well-drained soil is suitable.

View this page in Japanese (日本語)