Family: Scrophulariaceae
Bontia daphnoides, commonly known as white alling or wild olive, is a small evergreen shrub or tree native to the Caribbean and northern South America. It is valued for its tolerance to harsh coastal conditions, including salt spray, wind, and poor sandy soils, which makes it a popular ornamental plant in tropical regions. The plant produces buoyant drupes that are primarily dispersed by water, and potentially birds, and it typically grows in open, sunny habitats along shorelines. Bontia daphnoides has been cultivated in gardens and coastal plantings in places like Florida and Hawaiʻi, where it has occasionally escaped into natural areas, but it is not considered a major invasive species.
The plant does possess a few traits that require mindful management, such as its ability to produce viable seeds that can be dispersed by water and its tolerance of pruning and damage. However, these are outweighed by its low-risk characteristics, including its inability to form dense thickets, its shade intolerance, and the fact that it is not known to be allelopathic, toxic, or a host for significant pests. For these reasons, Bontia daphnoides is not expected to become a problematic invasive plant in Hawaii.
High Risk Traits:
- Naturalized outside its native range (e.g., Florida).
- Intentionally dispersed by people via cultivation.
- Water-dispersed, buoyant propagules.
- Tolerates mutilation and resprouts after damage.
- Self-compatible, enabling reproduction without pollinators.
- Produces viable seeds with moderate germination rates.
- Unpalatable to grazing animals.
Low Risk Traits:
- Not a weed (garden, agricultural, environmental)
- Not allelopathic, parasitic, or toxic to humans/animals.
- Does not create fire hazards or form dense thickets.
- Shade-intolerant.
- No vegetative reproduction or unintentional dispersal.
- Low seed production.
- Not a host for major pests or pathogens.
