Melochia umbellata

The plant is native to a region extending from India eastwards through Southeast Asia to north-western Australia and New Guinea. It occurs in secondary vegetation and forest clearings, on rocky slopes and along the edges of rivers and forests, often in seasonally dry soil.[2]

It has been introduced elsewhere and is cultivated widely to provide shade for young trees in timber and coffee plantations. It has become an invasive weed on the Island of Hawaiʻi where it was extensively planted in the Hilo area during a 1920s reforestation program