''Leptosolena'' is a genus of plants in the

Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Af ...

. It has only one known species, ''Leptosolena haenkei'',

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
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Discovery

The species was discovered in 1792 by the Czech traveller and botanist

Thaddaeus Haenke Jude ( grc-gre, Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus ( grc-gre, Θαδδαῖος; cop, ⲑⲁⲇⲇⲉⲟⲥ; ...

, member of the

Malaspina Expedition The Malaspina Expedition (1789–1794) was a five-year maritime scientific exploration commanded by Alessandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. Although the expedition receives its name from Malaspina, he always insisted on giving Busta ...

, the first ever scientific expedition to the Philippines. The boxes with collections of the expedition were send to Europe by Haenke who stuck in Bolivia never to return home. In 1821 they were found partially rotting in Cadiz in Spain by members of the Czech National Museum, bought out, brought to Prague and organized, including the type specimen of Leptosolena. The species was named by

Karel Presl Carl Borivoj Presl ( cs, Karel Bořivoj Presl; 17 February 1794 – 2 October 1852) was a Czech botanist. Biography Presl lived his entire life in Prague, and was a professor of botany at the University of Prague (1833–52).

, director of the Botanical Department of the Czech National Museum who organized the whole Haenke collection from the Malaspina expedition which made its way to Prague (15.000 specimen), while another part, deposited in Madrid herbarium is unknown now. The type specimen collected by Haenke personally in 1792 is deposited in the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

National Museum in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, which also donated some specimen to herbariums abroad like the Smithsonian in USA.

Rare species

The species is very rare. It was seen first and last time by Haenke in 1792. Since then it was thought to be extinct for 213 years until it was rediscovered in the wild in 2005 by the Japanese botanist Funakoshi Hidenobu.Funakoshi Hidenobu et al. 2005. Return from the Lost : Rediscovery of the Presumed Extinct ''Leptosolena'' (Zingiberaceae) in the Philippines and its Phylogenetic Placement in Gingers. Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 56(1), 41-53
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References

External links

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Genera in the Zingiberaceae, ''Leptosolena''

14 photographs Alpinioideae Zingiberaceae genera Endemic flora of the Philippines Flora of Luzon Monotypic Zingiberales genera Taxa named by Carl Borivoj Presl Endangered flora of Asia {{Zingiberales-stub