Acalypha rubrinervis

Acalypha rubrinervis is an extinct species of the family Euphorbiaceae. She was endemic to St. Helena.

System

Acalypha rubrinervis was first described in 1816 by William Roxburgh as Acalypha rubra. This name is now invalid because it is a later homonym.

Description

Acalypha rubrinervis was a shrub or small tree reaching a height of one to two meters. The branches were covered with nodular scarring. The leaves were ovate to broadly triangular - ovate, entire or slightly notched with three veins at the base of the leaf blade. The leaf blade was 5-7 inches long and 3-5 inches wide. The 2-6 cm long petioles and leaf veins were red. The graceful pendant, thread-like male inflorescence consisted of 20 centimeters long red ears, where the nature owes its English common name "string wood". The female flowers had two inches wide hemispherical cup-shaped bright red bracts and a sessile bare three meshed ring ovary. There were three scars that were fletched something. The male flowers were 0.5 to 1 mm long and sat like grapes in the axils of lanceolate bracts. The heyday was in April and May.

Occurrence

Acalypha rubrinervis was endemic in the central mountains of St. Helena and arrived at altitudes above 600 m before. Locations were the region of Round Tower and the dominated thicket south side of Diana 's Peak.

Extinction

Acalypha rubrinervis was already in the discovery in 1806 as very rare. One possible cause for the disappearance of the species were goats, which destroyed the vegetation. 1843 saw Joseph Dalton Hooker that Acalypha rubrinervis be extinct. 1855 John Charles Melliss discovered still another copy, received in 1870.