Zeuxine exilis Ridl. (1906:236)
Ridley's jewel orchid, Ridley's ground orchid, Slender jewel orchid
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
After its rediscovery by (Green et al., 2010), Zeuxine exilis was synonymised with the Javan congener Z. gracilis by (Barretto et al., 2011), but was maintained as a distinct species based upon two characters by (Ormerod, 2018:271).
Conservation Status
Last (and only) record: 18 October 1904 (Du Puy et al., 1993:520 [as October 1904])
Rediscovered on 17 November 2009 (Green et al., 2010:320)
Distribution
Christmas Island, Indian Ocean
Type locality: "AUSTRALIA. Christmas Island, Murray Hill track" (Ormerod, 2018:271)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Lectotype designated by (Wood, 1982:143). Isolectotypes exist in the BM and SING collections (Ormerod, 2018:271).
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Ridley, H. N. (1906). The botany of Christmas Island. Journal of the Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 45: 156-271.
Other references:
Barretto, G., Cribb, P. and Gale, S. (2011). The Wild Orchids of Hong Kong. Borneo: Natural History Publications.
Du Puy, D. J. (1988). Mapping of Christmas Island native and endemic plants with limited distributions. Unpublished report to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia.
Du Puy, D. J. (1993). Christmas Island, pp. 1-30 [2,13,20]. In: George, Alexander S. and Orchard, Anthony E. and Hewson, H. J. (eds.). Flora of Australia Volume 50, Oceanic Islands 2. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. xxvi + 606 pp.
Du Puy, D. J., Jones, D. L. and Edgar, E. (1993). Orchidaceae, pp. 516-528 [520]. In: George, Alexander S. and Orchard, Anthony E. and Hewson, H. J. (eds.). Flora of Australia Volume 50, Oceanic Islands 2. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. xxvi + 606 pp.
Green, P. T., O’Dowd, D. J. and Lake, P. S. (1997). Control of seedling recruitment by land crabs in rain forest on a remote oceanic island. Ecology 78: 2474- 2486.
Green, P. T., O’Dowd, D. J. and Lake, P. S. (2008). Recruitment dynamics in a rainforest seedling community: context-independent impact of a keystone consumer. Oecologia 156: 373-385.
Green, Peter T., Claussen, Jeff and O'Dowd, Dennis J. (2010). Lost for a century: rediscovery of the endemic Ridley's jewel orchid, Zeuxine exilis Ridl., on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. The Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore. 61(2): 319-326.
Holmes, J. and Holmes, G. (2002). Conservation status of the flora of Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Unpublished report to Parks Australia North, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean.
James, D., Green, P., Humphreys, W. and Woinarski, J. C. Z. (2019). Endemic species of Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Records of the Western Australian Museum 34(2): 55-114.
Ormerod, Paul. (2018). Notes on Zeuxine Lindl. (Orchidaceae: Goodyerinae). Harvard Papers in Botany 23(2): 269-277. doi:10.3100/hpib.v23iss2.2018.n10
Ridley, H. N. (1905). An expedition to Christmas Island. Journal of the Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 45: 137-155.
Silcock, Jen L., Field, Ashley R., Walsh, Neville G. and Fensham, Roderick J. (2019). To name those lost: assessing extinction likelihood in the Australian vascular flora. Oryx 54(2): 167-177. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318001357 [Supplementary Material]
Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.
Wood, J. J. (1982). The orchids of Christmas Island. The Orchadian 7: 142-146.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeuxine_exilis