This name is applied provisionally to the Madagascar plants in terms of the species circumscription: all the Madagascar plants with generally elliptic-oblong to obovate, obtuse to rounded, small to somewhat larger leaves, inflorescences composed of 1-3 relatively larger heads, and relatively large calyx limbs, corollas, and fruits are included under this name. No morphological sub-groups are superficially evident, but further study is likely to find that there are several distinct species within this group in Madagascar. These plants are quite often collected in littoral forest and/or on sandy substrates. The name Morinda rigida has been used in herb. for some of these plants; that is a species from southeastern Asia and the Madagascar plants do not seem to be conspecific, thus the name M. rigida is not used here for any Madagascar species.