''Phylica arborea'', also known as the Island Cape myrtle, is a shrub or small tree with narrow needle-like dark green leaves, downy silver on the underside, and with greenish white terminal flowers. Usually a shrub or procumbent tree, it may reach 6–7 m in height in sheltered locations. It is found on various isolated islands, including the

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcano, volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascensi ...

group and Gough Island, in the South

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, as well as Amsterdam Island in the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...

(Content Partner); Mark McGinley (Topic Editor). 2007
"Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands"
In: '' Encyclopedia of Earth''. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). (Published in the ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' April 16, 2007; Retrieved January 19, 2009).San Marcos Growers: ''Phylica arborea'' - Island Cape Myrtle
/ref>

Description

While there is a second tree species, '' Sophora macnabiana'', in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, to which Gough belongs, ''Phylica arborea'' is the only woody plant on Amsterdam Island and now grows almost only on the eastern slope of the island. However, this was not always the case. In 1726, Valentyn described a ''Phylica'' forest in the form of a belt between 100–250 meters in altitude and an area of (approximately 27% of the island's surface). This forest was so dense that getting through was virtually impossible. In 1875, Vélain estimated that the forest still covered a maximum of 250 hectares. The last volcanic eruption of 1792 and the resulting fires may have been the reason for the disappearance of the Amsterdam Island forest. In the mid-1980s, only a few fragments of the former forest remained. The extreme decline in the Phylica population is primarily the result of human deforestation, fires and cattle that Heurtin (a colonist from

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

) had released. After part of the herds were eradicated in the south of the island in 1988 and protective fences were installed, a protection program allowed the replanting of The seeds from the remaining specimens were used. Today the Grand Bois – a protected area – is the last dense ''Phylica'' stand on the eastern slope, covers an area of just 10 hectares (0.2% of the island's area)

References

External links

arborea Flora of Tristan da Cunha Flora of Gough Island Île Amsterdam Plants described in 1808 {{Rhamnaceae-stub