Melicope anisata is shrub or multi-trunked small tree ranging in height from 6 to 25 feet. The bark is smooth and gray-green with a red cambium layer.
The twigs are smooth and light brown. The branches are pliant and droopy giving the plant a somewhat vine-like growth habit. The thin, leathery leaves give off a strong anise fragrance when crushed. The leaves are oval shaped and usually range in size from 4 to 8 inches long and about half as wide. The leaves are bright green and the brownish or reddish leaf veins are conspicuous. Groups of 1 to 3 flowers form at the bases of the leaves. The fruit of Melicope anisata is a squarish, yellow-green capsule about 1/2 inch long. The capsule has a strong anise fragrance. There are 4 compartments in the capsule and each will have 1 or 2 glossy black seeds about 1/8 inch long. Mokihana has a strongly pungent anise odor and the scent is retained sometimes for years, in the dry wood as well as in the capsules.
(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii.)
(Lamb, Samuel H. 1981. Native trees and shrubs of the Hawaiian Islands.)
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