Dicliptera falcata (Lam.) J.Bosser & H.Heine (1988:146)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Justicia falcata Lam. in Encycl. 1: 629 (1785); Kuniria falcata (Lam.) Raf. in Fl. Tellur. 4: 61 (1838); Justicia laevigata Vahl in Symb. Bot. 2: 9 (1791); Dicliptera laevigata (Vahl) Juss. in Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. 9: 268 (1807); Diapedium laevigatum (Vahl) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 485 (1891)
Conservation Status
Globally Rediscovered
Last record (disputed): 1858 (Nundlaul, n.d.); 1864-1865 (Bosser & Heine 2000 fide Mauremootoo et al., 2003:15); 1865 (Anonymous, 2004:85)
Rediscovered in: December 2003 (Anonymous, 2004:85 [explicit rediscovery; no date]; Florens & Baider, 2006 [implicit rediscovery; date]; Autrey, 2025:6 [explicit rediscovery; no date])
Decline and disappearance
The species historically suffered from an insect pest, putatively contributing to its disappearance in the mid-19th century:
"One well-documented account on the effect of an insect pest on a Mauritian endemic plant concerns Dicliptera falcata (Acanthaceae) which was last seen between 1864–65. All specimens observed were parasitised, their ovaries were destroyed and none were fruiting (Bosser and Heine 2000)." (Mauremootoo et al., 2003:15)
It was either last recorded in 1858 (Nundlaul, n.d.), or between 1864-1865 (Bosser and Heine 2000 fide Mauremootoo et al., 2003:15; Anonymous, 2004:85). And it was listed as Extinct by (WCMC, 1992:215).
Rediscovery
It was recorded alive during fieldwork in 2003 on the islet Gunner's Quoin off the northern coast of Mauritius by botanists F.B.V. Florens and Claudia Baider (Florens & Baider, 2006:9). But they only briefly mention the species in a paper describing the discovery of Cynanchum scopulosum (Florens & Baider, 2006), which may be partly explained by the fact that the rediscovery had already been reported, albeit in a newsletter of the IUCN (Anonymous, 2004:85). The rediscovery has elswhere errouneously been reported to have occurred in 2005 (Nundlaul, n.d.).
Distribution & Habitat
Gunner’s Quoin (islet), northern Mauritius, Mascarene Islands
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Anonymous. (2004). Indian Ocean Island Plant (Plant Specialist Groups). Species 42: 85-86.
Autrey, L. Jean Claude. (2025). Flora of the Mascarenes Project. MAST Newsletter [2025]: 5-6.
Bosser, J. and Heine, H. (2000). Acanthacées. In: Bosser, J., Ferguson, I. K. and Soopramanien, C. (eds.). (2000). Flore des Mascareignes 127-135: 1. IRD Éditions, MSIRI, RBG-Kew, Paris.
Florens, F. B. V. and Baider, Cláudia. (2006). On the discovery of a new endemic Cynanchum (Apocynaceae) on Gunner's Quoin, Mauritius. Phelsuma 14: 7-12.
Govaerts, R. (2000). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS Genera starting with letter D: 1-30141.
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]
MAIFPS (Ministry of Agro Industry, Food Production and Security). (n.d.). National Parks and Conservation Science: The Northern Islets. Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101117122650/http://www.gov.mu/portal/sites/moasite/nationalpark/northernislets.htm [Accessed 18 June 2026]
Mauremootoo, J. R., Watt, I. and Florens F. B. V. (2003). Mauritius Biodiversity. Unpublished Book Chapter produced for Conservation International’s State of the Hotspots publication: Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands. 39 pp.
Nundlaul, Vimul. (n.d.). Islet and offshore unit. National Parks and Conservation Science, Mauritius. [authorship uncertain]
POWO. (2026). Dicliptera falcata (Lam.) Bosser & Heine. Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 18 June 2026]
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.
WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1992). Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. London: Chapman & Hall. xx + 594 pp.
W.C.M.C. (1996). Threatened plant database of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. W.C.M.C., Cambridge, U.K.
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