They are a tubular bell shape with a fragrant odor and there are 5 lance-shaped sepals and 5 petals forming the tube.

[2][3][4] Myoporum sandwicense was first formally described in 1866 by Asa Gray and the description was published in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[2] There are two subspecies:[2] In 1951 Grady Webster included a form found in the Cook Islands as Myoporum sandwicense subsp.

[11] Native Hawaiians, who called the wood ʻaʻaka, used it to make manu (bow and stern ornamental end pieces) and pale (gunwales) for waʻa (outrigger canoes), pou (house posts),[12] haha ka ʻupena (fishing net spacers),[10] and lamalama (long-burning torches for night fishing).

[13] M. sandwicense can be cultivated using seeds separated from the fruit - the average germination time varies by reports but is most commonly noted as taking between six and eighteen months.

[3] For a short time in the 19th century after most ʻIliahi (Santalum freycinetianum) had been harvested, naio was exported to China, where it was made into incense and burned in Joss houses.