Walking the top of the beach you catch a smell like a fridge left unplugged and find a shrub with big glossy leaves and a fist of knobbly pale fruit. Noni. It came across the Pacific with people long ago and has lined tropical shores ever since.
Where you’ll see it
The back of the beach, coastal scrub, and gardens where someone planted it for the supposed benefits. It thrives in sand and salt.
What to know
The fruit is edible and has a long record in Polynesian and Asian traditional medicine, and modern marketing has turned it into an expensive juice with a lot of claims attached. The claims are largely unproven. The plant itself is a tough, useful coastal shrub that stabilises sand and feeds bats and birds. Smell it once for the experience.
