''Malva phoenicea'', often still known under the

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

''Lavatera phoenicea'' and ''Navaea phoenicea'', is a large shrub of the family Malvaceae and tribe Malveae, endemic to the island of Tenerife in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

Taxonomy

In 1805 this species was described as ''Lavatera phoenicea'' by

Étienne Pierre Ventenat Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, V ...

. In 1836 Webb and Berthelot separated this plant from other ''

Lavatera ''Malva'' is a genus of herbaceous annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae. It is one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the tempe ...

'' in a new, then monotypic genus '' Navaea'', named for Alonso de Nava y Grimón, (1757-1832), founder of the botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife ( Jardín de Aclimatación de la Orotava). The reason for including this species in a separate genus was the presence of nectaries in the base of each petal, which is unique in the tribe Malveae. Published studies using molecular markers (

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...

and ITS sequences) support this separation, as phylogenetic trees show ''M. phoenicea'' in a basal position in relation to the rest of ''Lavatera-Malva'' complex, which would indicate it arrived on the islands in the distant past, when the genus ''Malva'' was just beginning to differentiate.

Distribution

''M. phoenicea'' is very rare and it is threatened. It grows only in northern cliffs in the massifs of

Anaga Macizo de Anaga is a mountain range in the northeastern part of the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The highest point is 1,024 m (Cruz de Taborno). It stretches from the Punta de Anaga in the northeast to Cruz del Carmen in the sou ...

and Teno, on Tenerife.

Ecology

This plant presents a clear bird pollination syndrome, a phenomenon shared with another 12

Macaronesian Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...

endemics (genus ''

Musschia ''Musschia'' is a genus of plants in the family Campanulaceae. It contains three known species, all endemic to the Madeira Archipelago in the eastern North Atlantic, part of the Republic of Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Repu ...

'', ''

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

'', ''

Isoplexis {{Italic title ''Isoplexis'' is a section of four species of flowering plants within the genus ''Digitalis'' in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. The species of section ''Isoplexis'' differ from other plants in the genus ''Digitalis'' in that ...

'', ''

Canarina ''Canarina'' is a genus of flowering plants within the family Campanulaceae. They are herbaceous perennial vines with bell-shaped flowers. The best known species is ''Canarina canariensis'' from the laurel forests of the Canary Islands which is ...

'', '' Echium'' and '' Scrophularia''). This bird pollination syndrome is pretty rare in these latitudes and seems to have independent origins according to phylogenies of each lineage.

Conservation

Legally, the regional government declared the species to be a "protected plant" in 1991 and the species was listed in the 2001 ''Catálogo de Especies Amenazadas de Canarias'', these law were superseded by the 2010 ''Catálogo Canario de Especies Protegidas'' law in which it was included in as a plant 'important to the ecosystems of the Canary Islands'. It has not been assessed by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. The species was first assessed according to the IUCN standards in 2000 with the status of 'endangered', in 2004 as 'vulnerable' and in 2008 as 'endangered' again. A Spanish government publication already identified it as endangered in 1984, as did a regional government publication in 1996.

References

phoenicea Flora of the Canary Islands Shrubs Taxa named by Étienne Pierre Ventenat Taxa named by Friedrich Alefeld {{Malveae-stub