Phyllostegia are large shrubby or viny native mints. They tend to sprawl and climb, with leaves up to nearly a foot long. Phyllostegia ambigua can cover an entire small tree. They're quite brittle, and easily uprooted and torn apart by pig rooting.
The phyllostegia species on Hawai'i are floribunda, vestita, velutina, racemosa, ambigua, brevidens, macrophylla, parviflora, stachyoides and warshaueri.