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Melhania melanoxylon
Melhania melanoxylon, the dwarf ebony or St Helena ebony, of the island of Saint Helena is related to Melhania ebenus but is now extinct. It differed from M. ebenus by having much smaller flowers, sepals hairless on their interior surfaces and leaves densely hairy on both surfaces (M. ebenus is densely hairy only on the lower surfaces of the leaves).
It was last seen when it was collected by Banks and Solander in 1771 on Cook's first voyage. It may once have covered many of the driest slopes of Saint Helena, but appears to have been one of the first casualties of the introduction of the domestic goat by the Portuguese sailors soon after the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502.
Melhania angustifolia · Melhania annua · Melhania burchellii · Melhania damarana · Melhania dehnhardtii · Melhania didyma · Melhania erythroxylon · Melhania forbesii · Melhania integra · Melhania latibracteolata · Melhania milleri · Melhania ovata
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melhania melanoxylon 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.
