Phylica arborea

Trees of Phylica arborea on the Amsterdam Island.

Phylica arborea is a rare tree-like, woody plant of the family of the buckthorn family ( Rhamnaceae ). It is native only to the South Atlantic island of Gough and Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean.

Dissemination

While there, with Sophora cassioides still a second species in the island group of Tristan da Cunha, one of the Gough is Phylica arborea, the only woody plant of the Amsterdam Island and also grows there today almost exclusively on the eastern slopes of the island. However, this was not always the case:

Mid-1980s were from the former forest only a few remaining copies left.

Also the last volcanic eruption of 1792 and the resulting fires could have been the reason for the disappearance of the forest of Amsterdam Island:

Relationship

Long believed that Phylica Trees of Amsterdam Island belong to the type Phylica nitida. Recent phylogenetic studies have shown, however, that the Phylica plants were not directly related to Phylica nitida of Reunion or Mauritius. According Phylica nitida is now considered endemic species of the Mascarene Islands. Nevertheless, the Phylica plants of the Amsterdam Island are on many documents, including the stamps of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, as Phylica nitida respectively.

On the other hand, the Phylica Trees of Amsterdam Island are genetically very closely related to those of the 7200 km distant island Gough and form with them a kind The transport of seeds by the Gelbnasenalbatros could explain the relationship of this long distance.