Vernonia Sechellensis
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| Baker |
Vernonia Sechellensis (Synonym: Cacalia Sechellensis ) is an extinct plant species from the genus of the sham asters ( Vernonia ) within the sunflower family . It was endemic to the Seychelles island of Mahé .
description
Vernonia Sechellensis was a shrub that reached a stature height of 90 to 120 cm. The bark of the woody branches was hairy short and downy. The sessile, 5 to 7.5 cm long leaves were piled at the end of the branches. The somewhat leathery, almost hairless leaf blades were obsolete-lanceolate-oblong with a pointed upper end and a narrowly rounded base.
The baskets stood together in a dense, umbrella-like overall inflorescence with a diameter of 75 to 100 mm. Except at the top, the strong, ascending panicle branches were bare. Flower stalks were absent or very short. The bell-shaped envelope (involucre) was less than 6 mm long. The dull brown bracts stood in four or five rows and were worn out early. The outer bracts were short, blunt and hairy, the inner lanceolate and pointed.
The cylindrical, permanently hairy achenes were 2 mm long and had eight to ten protruding ribs. The 6 mm long pappus consisted of 100 or more durable, stiff, evenly lashed, bright salmon-red bristles.
status
Vernonia Sechellensis is only known from the holotype that the Scottish botanist John Horne (1835-1905) had collected in 1874 in Forêt Noir on Mahé. The species has not been rediscovered since then.
literature
- John Gilbert Baker: Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles: a description of the flowering plants and ferns of those islands. L. Reeve, London 1877, p. 162 (online at Gallica).
Web links
- Photograph of the holotype in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
- Vernonia Sechellensis inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Ismail, S., Huber, MJ & Mougal, J., 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2013.