Beach Naupaka

Scaevola taccada, known as beach naupaka, beach cabbage or sea lettuce, is a flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae that grows in mangrove swamps and on rocky or sandy coasts across the tropical Indo-Pacific. It is a large bush, about 3 to 10 metres tall, with slightly succulent, fleshy-looking yellowish green leaves, and it grows very close to the sea in salt spray. It is among the first pioneer plants on tropical atolls and sandbanks. The page notes long confusion over its correct scientific name, and that it is also known by the synonym Scaevola sericea. In some Pacific islands it is used to prevent coastal erosion and to shelter crops from salt spray. Parts of it are used in Polynesian and Asian traditional medicine: Chamorro breath-hold spearfishermen in the Mariana Islands used drops from the plant for eye irritation, and in the Maldives the leaves were once a famine food. In the Caribbean it is invasive.