About the plant
The St Helena redwood, Trochetiopsis erythroxylon, is extinct in the wild. All surviving specimens are descended from a single tree found on St Helena in the 1950s.
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Extinct in the wild
The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of the world’s species. The ongoing mission is to evaluate every plant species in the world.
IUCN Red List Status:
Not yet evaluatedData deficientLeast concernNear threatenedVulnerableEndangeredCritically endangeredExtinct in the wildExtinct -
Banked in the MSBSeeds from this plant have been banked in Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, at Wakehurst in Sussex
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MaterialPlant provides materials for manufacturing either fibre or timber
Facts
- Extinct in the wild
- Pendant flowers
- Petals turn pink with age
- Produce lots of pollen and nectar
- St Helena is a UK Overseas Territory
© Rebecca Cairns-Wicks
© Rebecca Cairns-Wicks
© T. M. Heller
The benefits of being different
Trochetiopsis erythroxylon once grew up to 8m tall with a strong, straight trunk, so its wood quickly became a favoured building material. All but one were chopped down to build houses and boats.
The only survivor was small and had a curving trunk, making it unsuitable for construction purposes.
Today, all existing trees are clones of that last survivor. They rarely grow beyond 3m tall and often have curved limbs.
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Extinct in the wild
The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of the world’s species. The ongoing mission is to evaluate every plant species in the world.
IUCN Red List Status:
Not yet evaluatedData deficientLeast concernNear threatenedVulnerableEndangeredCritically endangeredExtinct in the wildExtinct -
Banked in the MSBSeeds from this plant have been banked in Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, at Wakehurst in Sussex
-
MaterialPlant provides materials for manufacturing either fibre or timber