It looks very much like Heliotrope (Heliotropum arborescens)- if that's so, then it should have had a strong cherry-vanilla scent....
Nah - the plant in question has a height of couple of meters and its leaves are much bigger. On top of it, it isn't a perennial.
You're telling me that that plant on Madiera developed its trunk in one year? For me here in Ecuador, Heliotropes are perennial evergreens and form up into small trees. (hence the scientific name "arborescens.") Perhaps in places that have winter, it's an annual, but not here. The one on my blog was only a year or so old; my friends have one that's a 3-meter tree.
