Scaevola sericea var. taccada (Naupaka kahakai)

Scaevola sericea Vahl var. taccada (Gaertn.) Thieret & B. Lipscomb

Scaevola taccada (Gaertn.) Roxb.

Naupaka kahakai, beach cabbage, sea lettuce, beach naupaka

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Asteridae	A large class that encompasses asters
Order	Asterales	Flowering plants with a central disk flower and surrounding petals, like daisies
Family	Goodeniaceae
Genus	Scaevola
Species	sericea	Silky
var.	taccada

About plant names...

Naupaka kahakai is a Hawaiian native.

Identification: A shrub that is typically 3' (91 cm) in height, it sometimes reaches 10' (3 m) high and 15' (4.6 m) wide. Waxy, succulent leaves are up to 8" (20 cm) long and about a fifth as wide. The most recognizable feature of this shrub is its half-flowers, a source of legends like the one below.

Photo by J.M.Garg.

The Hawaiian Legend of the Naupaka Flower
A beautiful woman, a stranger to the village believed to be from the mountains, fell in love with a village youth. When he rejected her and went back to his sweetheart, the beautiful woman followed him and tore him from his sweetheart’s embrace. Anger blazed about the beautiful woman, and the villagers knew she was Pele, Goddess of Volcanoes. Pele pursued the youth into the mountains, hurling lava after him. There the gods took pity on the youth and transformed him into a half flower, the ‘mountain naupaka.’ Pele shrieked with rage and fled on a river of lava to the ocean. She overtook the maid, whom the gods turned into a beach naupaka. The lovers are forever separated, for the half flowers of the youth still bloom alone in the mountains, and the half flowers of the maiden blossom alone on the beach.

Online References:

Scaevola sericea var. taccada at the University of Hawai‘i’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at Mānoa

Scaevola sericea var. taccada at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database

Scaevola sericea var. taccada on the USDA Plants Database

Scaevola sericea var. taccada at Native Plants Hawai‘i

Scaevola sericea var. taccada description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

7/21/2007 · Guam · By Jacquelyn Boyt

3/15/2001 · Hawaii Botanical Gardens, Hawaii ID is uncertain

Range:

About this map...