Trochetia parviflora
Encyclopedia
Trochetia parviflora is a very rare shrub from the Trochetia
Trochetia
Trochetia is a genus of flowering plants from the family Malvaceae . They are endemic to the Mascarene Islands.The genus was first described by A.P...

genus endemic to Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

. Traditionally included in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Sterculiaceae
Sterculiaceae
Sterculiaceae is a botanical name for a group of flowering plants at the rank of family, which is now considered obsolete. As is true for any botanical name, the circumscription, status and placement of the taxon has varied with taxonomic point of view...

, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...

 in the APG
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to an informal international group of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies., three...

 and most subsequent systematics.

Description

Trochetia parviflora is a much-branched low shrub which can reach a height up to four metres. The bark has a lepidote brown pubescense which is much thinner than in Trochetia uniflora and Trochetia triflora. On the branches fruits are placed in a group of three. The oblong and entire leaves have a length between 2.5 and 3.8 centimetres. The leave base is rather rounded. The upperside of the leave is obtused and scabrous, the underside is thinly scurfy.

Status

In the past Trochetia parviflora was known from the forest at Montagne-Ory. After botanist Philip Burnard Ayres
Philip Burnard Ayres
Philip Burnard Ayres was a British physician, botanist and plant collector. He was born at Thame in Oxfordshire on 12 December 1813. He initially began to collect plants in his native United Kingdom and also in France. In 1856 Ayres was appointed by Queen Victoria to superintendency of...

 collected the last known specimens in 1863 it was long regarded as lost until 76 individuals were rediscovered in April 2001 by the Mauritian botanists Vincent Florens and Jean-Claude Sevathian, from the Mauritius Herbarium, on a rocky slope of the Corps de Garde
Corps de Garde
Corps de Garde is a 720 metre-high mountain of volcanic origin, in the area of the Moka Range between the Mountain Du Rempart and the Le Pouce Mountain in the Plaines Wilhems district of Mauritius. This basaltic rock has an imposing appearance which is characterized by an abruptly breakup and is...

six kilometres apart from the type locality. It was assumed that this species has reduced its original range due to competition with invasive alien plants and seed predation by invasive monkeys and rats. Today the biggest threats are wildfire and landslides.

External links

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