''Breynia assimilis'' is an extremely rare species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the eudicot Order (biology), order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogeneti ...

. It is a shrub or

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the wet evergreen lowland forests of southwestern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It is only known from the Sinharaja Biosphere Reserve there, evidence of its existence was last catalogued before 1991 (in a survey held between 1991 and 1996 by the National Conservation Review of Sri Lanka), and it has not been found since then. It may since have become

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. The species was first collected for scientific examination and classification from Allagalla, in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, at an elevation of , by botanist

George Henry Kendrick Thwaites George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (9 July 1812, Bristol – 11 September 1882, Kandy) was an English botanist and entomologist. Career Thwaites was initially an accountant and studied botany during his spare time. He was interested particularly ...

, who named it ''Sauropus assimilis''. This high elevation, when compared with where it has been found more recently, would seem to indicate that the historic range of ''B. assimilis'' is much broader than it stands today. Thwaites described and published this species for the first time in 1861. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

"''assimilis''" is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, meaning "like" or "similar to": in Thwaites text, he indicates that the overall appearance of ''B. assimilis'' is similar to that of ''Sauropus gardnerianus'', now considered a synonym of '' B. androgyna''.

References

assimilis Endemic flora of Sri Lanka Critically endangered plants Plants described in 1861 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Phyllanthaceae-stub