Velvetleaf Soldierbush

Shrubs 1-5 m tall or small trees; branchlets stout, densely rust-colored or white pubescent. Leaves terminating branches, oblanceolate to obovate, 7-13 × 2-4 cm, densely covered with yellowish white filiform hairs, base attenuate, apex obtuse to rounded. Inflorescences terminal, corymbose, 5-10 cm in diam., densely rust-colored pubescent; cymes scorpioid. Calyx fleshy, sessile, 1.5-2 mm, 5-parted; lobes oblong or obovate to rounded, densely rust-colored pubescent outside, pubescent only at base or subglabrous inside, ca. 1/2 as long as corolla. Corolla white, tubular, 2.5-3 mm; lobes spreading, ovate, ca. 2 mm, longer than tube. Stamens somewhat exserted; filaments inserted ca. 4 mm above base of corolla tube; anthers ovate-oblong, ca. 1 mm. Ovary subglobose, glabrous. Style obscure; stigma 2-cleft, base ringlike, inflated. Fruit subglobose, ca. 5 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Sandy beaches. Hainan, Taiwan [Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; Pacific Islands (New Caledonia, Polynesia)].

Argusia argentea (Linnaeus f.) Heine; Messerschmidia argentea (Linnaeus f.) I. M. Johnston; Tournefortia arborea Blanco.