''Myoporum niueanum'', alternatively known as the Niue myoporum, is a plant in the figwort

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

of unresolved status that was first described by botanist Harold St. John in 1976 based upon plant material originally collected a century earlier.John, H.S. A plant collection from Niue Island by Jensen in 1876 pacific plant studies 29. Bot. Mag. Tokyo 89, 235–240 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02488345 It is believed to be

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

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

n island nation of

Niue Niue is a self-governing island country in free association with New Zealand. It is situated in the South Pacific Ocean and is part of Polynesia, and predominantly inhabited by Polynesians. One of the world's largest coral islands, Niue is c ...

. The species is recognized by several authorities as a full species, however there have been no modern observations and it is unclear if the species may actually have come from a different locality or gone extinct since the original collection. The respected botanist Arthur Whistler formally challenged the terms of the original species description and suggested the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

may indeed have been undescribed but actually have come from a different region.W. Arthur Whistler (1984) Notes on the flora of Niue, New Zealand Journal of Botany, 22:4, 565–567, DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.1984.10425291

Description

St. John describes the species as a

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

woody plant with leafy branchlets 1–3 mm in diameter, possessing a longitudinal ridge. The leaves are alternate with petioles 6–8 mm long. The leaf blades are described as 5.5–6.7 cm long, 1.3–1.7 cm wide, narrowly elliptic, but cuneate and decurrent at the base. The flowers are broadly ovate and acute occurring 1–2 to an axil with pedicels 7–9 mm long, calyx 2.5 mm long, and 5 lobes 0.8 mm long.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17745753 Flora of Niue niueanum Plants described in 1976