This small tree with the large yellow fruits is noni, an early Polynesian introduction. Noni is widely distributed in Hawai‘i in dry to mesic forests and open coastal areas, but mostly found in gardens and disturbed sites.

The plant was, and continues to be, cultivated for its medicinal properties. The ripe fruit was used as a poultice, the juice prepared as a drink taken for various ailments. Nowadays local practice is to allow the fruits to ferment in a closed jar set out in the sun and drink the resulting slurry as a cure for cancer and/or a number of other ailments. The taste is rather gastly. "Refined" versions are sold commercially as noni juice, dried, or in capsule form. For the Hawaiians of old, noni bark yielded a red dye, and the roots a yellow dye, these used for coloring kapa.