【Designated by the City：Natural Monument (Flora)】Sakishima-suonoki

The tree, belonging to the sterculia family, is a tall ever-green tree which normally reaches 5-15 m in height and naturally grows in a mangrove forest. The leaves take a long-elliptic or egg-like shape. They are 10-20 cm long, obtuse and round towards the stem side end. The surface is hairless and smooth, and the backside is densely covered by pale or silver gray colored, circle-shaped scales. The fruits are hard and ligneous, and boat-shaped with a smooth and glossy surface. The plant is distributed in Amami Oshima, Okinawa Island, Miyako, Ishigaki, Iriomote, Taiwan, tropical zones of Asia, Polynesia, and Africa.

The wild growth area at Tomai Utaki is located at the tip of the cape extending into the Yonaha Bay. Near the coast, there prevail Sakishima-suonoki, both matured and young ones in a large quantity, growing along with other tall trees including tropical almond. At the seaside stands a giant tree which is 8-10 m high and its buttress root is 1-1.3 m high. The tree is considered to be 150-200 years old.
Another growth point, Tsuzu Utaki is located on a hill of Uechi and Jokaku. The reason why Sakishima-suonoki grows there may be inferred from the fact that there are more than ten mature trees growing naturally in the area though the parent tree has died off. It is considered that the water’s edge once extended below Tsuzu Utaki, and the marine regression left behind seeds, which then formed the plant community.