Sophora toromiro (Phil) Skottsb. (1921)
Toromiro
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Edwardsia toromiro Phil. in Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 31: 743 (1873)
Conservation Status
Extinct in the Wild (Humphreys et al., 2019; Rivera Caniulao & Chaparro, 2021; Dalrymple et al., 2023; Smith et al., 2023; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024; POWO, 2024)
Last record: 1935 (Skottsberg, 1920-1955); 1953 [error for 1935?] (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024); 1955-56 (Lucas & Synge 1978:291); 1960 (Rivera Caniulao & Chaparro, 2021)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct in the Wild
Distribution & Habitat
Easter Island (= Rapa Nui)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Skottsberg, Carl. (1921 [1920-1955]). The natural history of Juan Fernandez and Easter Island. Carl Skottsberg, editor. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri.
Other references:
Bahn, P and Flenley, J. (1992). Easter Island, Earth Island. London: Thames & Hudson.
Bailleul, Stéphane et al. (2023). The Contribution of the Montreal Botanical Garden to Plant Conservation. In: Pullaiah, T. and Galbraith, David A. (eds.). Botanical Gardens and Their Role in Plant Conservation: European and American Botanical Gardens, Volume 3. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
CONAF. (2011). Plan Nacional de Conservación del Toromiro. Corporación Nacional Forestal, Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui.
Dalrymple, S. E., Abeli, T., Ewen, J. G., Gilbert, T. C., Hogg, C. J., Lloyd, N. A., Moehrenschlager, A., Rodríguez, J. P. and Smith, D. (2023). Addressing Threats and Ecosystem Intactness to Enable Action for Extinct in the Wild Species. Diversity 15: 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020268
Espejo, J., Novoa, P., Ruiz, E. and Baeza, M. (2008). Acciones de conservación en Sophora toromiro (Skottsb.) con un enfoque en Mejoramiento Genético: ¿Una nueva oportunidad de restauración en Isla de Pascua. La Serena. Chile. INIA-Millenium Seed Bank Project (Kew).
Espejo, Jaime and Rodríguez, Roberto. (2013). Antecedentes históricos en la descripción y del uso de Sophora toromiro (Phil.) Skottsb. (Fabaceae) en su hábitat natural: 1770-1948 / Historical description and use of Sophora toromiro (Phil.) Skottsb. (Fabaceae) in the wild: 1770-1948. Gayana Botánica 70(2): 384-390. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-66432013000200015
Flenley, J. R. (1993). The palaeoecology of Rapa Nui, and its ecological disaster, pp. 27-45. In: Fischer, S. R. (ed.). Easter Island Studies. Contributions to the History of Rapanui in Memory of William T. Mulloy. Oxford Books, Oxford.
Hawkes, J. G., Maxted, N. and Ford-Lloyd, B. V. (2000). Field Gene Banks, Botanic Gardens In Vitro, DNA and Pollen Conservation, pp. 92-107. In: The Ex Situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Heenan, Peter B., Mitchell, Caroline M., Shepherd, Lara D. and Houliston, Gary J. (2021). Microsatellite characterisation of the extinct Sophora toromiro (Fabaceae) and confirmation of the identities of Allan Herbarium specimens and the fabled Christchurch ‘Victoria Park toromiro’. New Zealand Journal of Botany. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.2021.2007957
Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]
Le Roux, Johannes J., Hui, C., Castillo, M. L., Iriondo, J. M., Keet, J.-H., Khapugin, A. A., Médail, F., Rejmánek, M., Theron, G. Yannelli, F. A. and Hirsch, H. (2019). Recent Anthropogenic Plant Extinctions Differ in Biodiversity Hotspots and Coldspots. Current Biology 29(17): 2912-2918.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.063
Lucas, Gren and Synge, Hugh (compilers). (1978, reprinted 1980). The IUCN Plant Red Data Book. Morges, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 540 pp.
Mackinder, B. and Staniforth, M. (1997). Plate 330. Sophora toromiro. Curtis's Botanical Magazine 14:221–226.
Maunder, Mike. (1997). Conservation of the extinct Toromiro Tree, Sophora toromiro. Curtis's Botanical Magazine 14(4): 226-231. [Abstract]
Maunder, Mike, Culham, A., Alden, B., Zizka, G., Orliac, C. et al. (2000). Conservation of the Toromiro tree: case study in the management of a plant extinct in the wild. Conservation Biology 14(5): 1341-1350. [Abstract]
Maunder, Mike, Culham, A., Bordeu, A., Allainguillaume, J. and Wilkinson, M. (1999). Genetic diversity and pedigree for Sophora toromiro (Leguminosae): a tree extinct in the wild. Molecular Ecology 8(5): 725-738. [Abstract]
Orliac, Catherine and Orliac, Michel. (2008). Extinct flora of Easter Island, pp. 197-208. In: Di Piazza, Anne, Pearthree, Erick and Sand, Christophe (eds.). At the Heart of Ancient Societies: French Contributions to Pacific Archaeology. Les Cahiers de l'Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie.
Pezoa, Ignacio, Villacreses, J., Rubilar, M., Pizarro, C., Galleguillos, M. J., Ejsmentewicz, T., Fonseca, B., Espejo, J., Polanco, V. and Sánchez, C. (2021). Generation of Chloroplast Molecular Markers to Differentiate Sophora toromiro and Its Hybrids as a First Approach to Its Reintroduction in Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Plants 10: 342. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020342
POWO. (2018). Plants of the World online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://e-monocot.org/.
POWO. (2024). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 3 June 2024]
Püschel, Thomas A. et al. (2014). Analysing the Floral Elements of the Lost Tree of Easter Island: A Morphometric Comparison between the Remaining Ex-Situ Lines of the Endemic Extinct Species Sophora toromiro. PLoS ONE 9(12): e115548.
Ricci, M. and Eaton, L. (1997). Do all existing Sophora toromiro descend from one individual? Biodiversity and Conservation 6: 1697-1702.
Rivera Caniulao, M. and Chaparro, C. B. (2021). Sophora toromiro. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T30392A149811526. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T30392A149811526.en. Accessed on 11 June 2022.
Rull, Valentí. (2020). The deforestation of Easter island. Biological Reviews 95(1): 124-141. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12556
Smith, Donal et al. (2023). Extinct in the wild: The precarious state of Earth’s most threatened group of species. Science 379(6634): eadd2889. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add2889
The Nature Conservancy. (1996). Natural Heritage Central Database. (Status and distribution data on Latin American plants, developed in collaboration with Latin American Conservation Data Centers and Missouri Botanical Garden).
Threatened Plants Committee Newsletters No.5 and/or 6.
W.C.M.C. (1996). Threatened plant database of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. W.C.M.C., Cambridge, U.K.
World Conservation Monitoring Centre. (1998). Sophora toromiro. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 31 January 2015.
Yakovlev, G. P. (1967). Systematical and geographical studies of genus Sophora L. and Allied genera. Proc. Leningr. Chem. -Pharm. Inst. 21: 56. (in Russian.)
Zizka, Georg. (1991). Flowering plants of Easter Island. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Palmengarten.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/p3565e/P3565E07.htm