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Melhania erythroxylon, the Saint Helena redwood, is a species of flowering plant endemic to Saint Helena. It is a shrub or tree that is now extinct in the wild. This species has pendant flowers, petals that turn pink with age, and white staminodes.
It was formerly abundant enough in the upland parts of the island for early settlers in the 17th century to use the timber to make their homes. It became extinct in the 1950s due to deforestation as its habitat was cleared to make way for pasture, timber and fuel. The St. Helena redwood was used as an early example of ex situ conservation when the governor of Saint Helena obtained a couple seedlings and planted them in his garden. It now exists in cultivation, although cultivated stock is weak.
Melhania angustifolia · Melhania annua · Melhania burchellii · Melhania damarana · Melhania dehnhardtii · Melhania didyma · Melhania forbesii · Melhania integra · Melhania latibracteolata · Dwarf Ebony · Melhania milleri · Melhania ovata
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melhania erythroxylon by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
