Mellissia begoniifolia (Roxb.) Hook.f. (1867:1021)
Saint Helena boxwood, St Helena boxwood, Boxwood
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Physalis begoniifolia Roxb. in A.Beatson, Tracts St. Helena: 317 (1816); Withania begoniifolia (Roxb.) Hunz. & Barboza in Lorentzia 8: 7 (1995)
Conservation Status
Extinct in the Wild (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024)
Last record: 1875 or before (Melliss, 1875) or later; late 1800's (Fay et al., 2007)
Rediscovered in: November 1998 (Cairns-Wicks, 2003; Fay et al., 2007 [as 1998]; Lambdon & Ellick, 2016 [as 1998])
Last wild record: 2010 (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
Distribution & Habitat
St. Helena
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Roxburgh, W. (1816). An alphabetical list of plants seen by Dr. Roxburgh growing on the island of St Helena in 1813–1814. Appendix (295-326) to Beatson, A. Tracts relative to the island of St Helena; Written during a Residence of Five Years. London: Bulmer & Co.
Other references:
Ashmole, P. and Ashmole, M. (2000). St Helena and Ascension Island: a Natural History. Oswestry: Anthony Nelson.
Cairns-Wicks, R. Draft Recovery Action Plan for Mellissia begonifolia (Solanaceae).
Cairns-Wicks, R. (2003). Mellissia begonifolia. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 08 May 2015.
Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2024). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]
Cronk, Quentin C. B. (2000). The endemic flora of St Helene: 1-119. Oswestry, England: Antony Nelson.
Fay, Michael F., Thomas, Vanessa E. and Knapp, Sandra. (2007). Mellissia begonifolia: Solanaceae. Curtis' Botanical Magazine 24(4): 243-250. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8748.2007.00601.x
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]
Lambdon, P. (2012). Flowering plants & ferns of St Helena: 1-624. Pisces publications for St Helena nature conservation group.
Lambdon, P. W. and Ellick, S. (2016). Mellissia begonifolia. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T44011A67372413. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T44011A67372413.en. Accessed on 13 July 2025.
Melliss, J. C. (1875). St Helena: A physical, historical and topographical description of the Island including its geology, fauna, flora and meteorology. Reeve, London.
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 17 November 2024]
R.B.G. Kew & Intern. Inst. Environment and Development (1993). Status of the endemic flora and preliminary recovery programmes 3: 1-95.
Staniforth, M. (1999). St Helena boxwood saved. Kew Scientist 19: 8.
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.
http://www.rbg.ca/archive/cbcn/en/news/archive/press_boxwood.html