Nesiota elliptica (Roxb.) Hook.f. (1870:1052)
St Helena olive, Olive
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Phylica elliptica Roxb. in A.Beatson, Tracts St. Helena: 316 (1816); Trichocephalus ellipticus (Roxb.) G.Don in Gen. Hist. 2: 40 (1832); Phylica cotinifolia Port. ex Reiss. in S.L.Endlicher & E.Fenzl, Nov. Stirp. Dec.: 79 (1839); Soulangia oppositifolia Reissek in S.L.Endlicher & E.Fenzl, Nov. Stirp. Dec.: 79 (1839)
Conservation Status
Extinct (Cairns-Wicks, 2004; Lambdon & Ellick, 2016; Humphreys et al., 2019; Albani Rocchetti et al., 2022; POWO, 2024)
Rediscovered in 1977
Last record: 1994 (wild individual); December 2003 (cultivated specimen)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
This species has been identified as one of the 50 best candidates for de-extinction, ranking 42/50 (Albani Rocchetti et al., 2022).
Distribution
St Helena, Atlantic Ocean
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Beatson, A. (1816). An alphabetical list of plants seen by Dr Roxburgh growing on the island of St Helena. Tracts relative to the Island of St Helena, Appendix 1. W.Bulmer & Co., London, U.K.
Other references:
Albani Rocchetti, Giulia, Carta, Angelino, Mondoni, Andrea, Godefroid, Sandrine, Davis, Charles C., Caneva, Giulia, Albrecht, Matthew A., Alvarado, Karla, Bijmoer, Roxali, Borosova, Renata, Bräuchler, Christian, Breman, Elinor, Briggs, Marie, Buord, Stephane, Cave, Lynette H., Da Silva, Nílber Gonçalves, Davey, Alexandra H., Davies, Rachael M., Dickie, John B., Fabillo, Melodina, Fleischmann, Andreas, Franks, Andrew, Hall, Geoffrey, Kantvilas, Gintaras, Klak, Cornelia, Liu, Udayangani, Medina, Leopoldo, Reinhammar, Lars Gunnar, Sebola, Ramagwai J., Schönberger, Ines, Sweeney, Patrick, Voglmayr, Hermann, White, Adam, Wieringa, Jan J., Zippel, Elke Zippel and Abeli, Thomas. (2022). Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nature Plants 8: 1385-1393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01296-7 [Supplementary Tables S1-S6]
America, S. (1999). St Helena. Biodiversity: the UK Overseas Territories, 101.
Burchell, W. J. (1805-10). Flora Insulae Sanctae Helenae. Unpublished manuscript held at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, U.K.
Cairns-Wicks, R. (2004). Nesiota elliptica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T37598A10062366. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T37598A10062366.en. Accessed on 08 February 2024.
Christenhusz, M. and Govaerts, R. (2023). Uitgestorven. Op plantenjacht rond de wereld: 1-511. Sterck & De Vreese.
Cronk, Quentin C. B. (1987). The plight of the St Helena olive—Nesiota elliptica. Botanic Gardens Conservation News, 1: 30-32.
Cronk, Quentin C. B. (2000). The Endemic Flora of St. Helena. Anthony Nelson Publishers, Oswestry, UK.
He, T., and Lamont, B. B. (2022). Ancient Rhamnaceae flowers impute an origin for flowering plants exceeding 250-million-years ago. iScience 25:104642. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104642
Holland, M., Cronk, Q., MacDonald, D. and Holland, M. (1986). The Endemic Flora of St. Helena. The Government of St. Helena, St Helena.
Holmes, Branden. (2021). What's Lost and What Remains: The Sixth Extinction in 100 Accounts (eBook). Self published.
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]
Jackson, A. (1991). Project Popeye – Saving the St Helena Olive. Preliminary report to the World Wide Fund for Nature. WWF Project No. 162/89. Wakehurst Place, RBG, Kew.
Lambdon, P. W. (2012). Flowering Plants and Ferns of St Helena. Pisces Publications, Newbury, UK.
Lambdon, P. W. and Ellick, S. (2016). Nesiota elliptica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T37598A67372241. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T37598A67372241.en. Downloaded on 25 February 2018.
Melliss, J. C. (1875). St Helena: A Physical, Historical and Topographical Description of the Island, Including its Geology, Fauna, Flora and Meteorology. L. Reeve & Co., London, U.K.
Oldfield, S., Lusty, C. and MacKinven, A. (compilers). (1998). The World List of Threatened Trees. World Conservation Press, Cambridge, UK.
POWO. (2024). Nesiota elliptica (Roxb.) Hook.f. Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 8 February 2024]
Richardson, J. E., Fay, M. F., Cronk, Q. C. B., Bowman, D. and Chase, M. W. (2000). A molecular phylogenetic analysis of Rhamnaceae using rbcL and trnL-F plastid DNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 87: 1309-1324.
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
Vargas, Pablo. (2023). Exploring ‘endangered living fossils’ (ELFs) among monotypic genera of plants and animals of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11: 1100503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1100503
Vojtek, Ján. (2020). Refining extinction estimations for plants of the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs). MSc dissertation, Queen Mary, University of London. https://doi.org/10.34885/185
Williamson, M. (1984). St Helena ebony tree saved. Nature 309(5969): 581.
WCSP (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
https://vanishingflora.proboards.com/thread/84/st-helena-olive-nesiota-elliptica
https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/23394