Botany
Bagauak-na-puti is a smooth shrub growing to a height of 1.5 to 4 meters. Leaves are oblong to elliptic-oblong, 11 to 18 centimeters in length, and 5 to 9 centimeters wide, with pointed tips and rounded base, and somewhat entire or slightly toothed margins. Leaf stalks are 4 to 10 centimeters long. Flowers are fragrant, and borne in terminal cymose panicles. Calyx is inflated, green at the time of flowering, oblong-ovoid, about 2.5 centimeters long, and 1 centimeter in diameter. Corolla-tube is slender, cylindric, 5 to 8 centimeters long and straw-colored or whitish; lobes are narrowly oblong or linear-oblong, spreading, and about 2.5 centimeters in length. Stamens are exserted, and purple. Fruit is fleshy, blue, somewhat rounded, and about 1 centimeter in diameter. Calyx in the fruit is thickened, red or purple, split in five, 2.5 to 3 centimeters long lobes, and spreading when the fruit is mature.

Distribution
- Common in thickets and secondary forests at low and medium altitudes from northern Luzon to Mindanao and Basilan, in most islands and provinces.
- Also occurs in Celebes and the Sulu Islands.

Parts used
Leaves.

Uses
Edibility
- Young leaves eaten as vegetable.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, plant is used as an external remedy for chest and stomach complaints.
- Leaves are boiled and applied to carbuncles.

Availability
Wild-crafted.