''Cylindrocline lorencei'' is a small tree that was native to the island of
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, with only one specimen ever observed in the wild. By 1990 the species was considered extinct, and the only available seed could not be
germinated
Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...
.
Brest Botanic Gardens successfully performed ''
in vitro
''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...
'' culture of a viable part of the seed embryo, saving the plant from extinction. Through further
vegetative propagation
Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or speci ...
at Brest and
Kew Botanic Gardens, a small population of ''Cylindrocline lorencei'' has been grown and efforts are now underway to re-establish it in its native habitat.
["Rescued by Brest Botanic Gardens by rescuing embryos in vitro from non-
viable seeds." ]
Description
''Cylindrocline lorencei'' is a small tree growing up to high, with branches in the upper part that are densely covered in leaves in terminal rosettes. Leaves are olive-green colored with yellow-green veins, grow in spirals, and are attached directly to the stem or with a very short
petiole. The
oblanceolate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
shaped leaf is long and wide, with fine hairs on the upper surface and heavily covered with fine hairs underneath.
Distribution and habitat
The original specimen of ''Cylindrocline lorencei'' grew at elevation in
Black River Gorges National Park
Black River Gorges National Park is a national park in the hilly south-western part of Mauritius. It was proclaimed on June 15, 1994 and is managed by the National Parks and Conservation Service. It covers an area of 67.54 km² including hum ...
in a region called the Plaine Champagne. The habitat is lower elevation ericoid shrubland, and the plant was found growing along with ''
Helichrysum
The genus ''Helichrysum'' consists of an estimated 600 species of flowering plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The type species is ''Helichrysum orientale''. They often go by the names everlasting, immortelle, and strawflower. The name ...
'', in
laterite
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
soil.
Conservation
The material for the
type specimen
In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...
was collected in 1973 by botanist David H. Lorence, who observed only one plant in the Plaine Champagne area. Fruit collected in 1980 confirmed the survival of the plant up to that time. Due to the death of that plant, the species was considered to be
extinct in the wild
A species that is extinct in the wild (EW) is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as known only by living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range due ...
as of 1990, even though the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
for 1997 still classified it as Endangered—probably because they were unaware of the death of the single plant.
Several plants have been propagated and are growing at the Native Plant Propagation Centre at Curepipe in Mauritius. If those plants survive, attempts will be made to reestablish the plant in its native habitat in Black River Gorges National Park. Brest Botanic Gardens and Kew Botanic Gardens also continue to grow populations of the plant.
References
External links
IPNI Listinghttp://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:93 Kew Science
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3008680
lorencei
Endemic flora of Mauritius
Plants described in 1987