Hesperelaea

{{short description|Genus of flowering plants in the Oleaceae family}}

{{Speciesbox

|image =

|image_caption =

| status = EX | status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=Fuentes, A.C.D. |author2=Martínez Salas, E. |author3=Samain, M.-S. |date=2020 |title=Hesperelaea palmeri |volume=2020 |page=e.T126608606A126609708 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T126608606A126609708.en |access-date=20 November 2021}}

|display_parents = 3

|genus = Hesperelaea

|parent_authority = A.Gray

|species = palmeri

|authority = A.Gray

}}

Hesperelaea is a plant genus with only one species, probably now extinct. Hesperelaea palmeri was found only on Guadalupe Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, part of the Mexican state of Baja California, about {{convert|400|km|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of Ensenada. The last collection of the plant on the island was in 1875, so the species and the genus must now be presumed extinct. An intensive search for the plant in 2000 was unsuccessful.

At the time of the collection of the type material in 1875, Hesperelaea palmeri was found only in a single canyon on the east side of the island. It was a shrub with broadly lanceolate leaves up to 5 cm long. Flowers were pale yellow, the petals over 10 mm long. The species was unusual in the family in having fully distinct petals.

Phylogenetic analyses based on DNA from the nuclear genome as well as mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA suggest that H. palmeri is closely related to the genera Forestiera and Priogymnanthus in tribe Oleeae, and perhaps the sister lineage of Forestiera. A molecular clock analysis estimated its divergence from its closest relatives in the Early Miocene, likely pre-dating the age of Guadalupe Island. This suggests that H. palmeri is a paleoendemic that was once more widespread and then retreated to Guadalupe Island following environmental change.

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web |last1=Govaerts |first1=R. |year=2017 |title=Hesperelaea palmeri A.Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 11: 83 (1876) |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=370564 |access-date=2017-08-06}}

{{cite book |editor-last1=Santos del Prado |editor-first1=K. |editor-last2=Peters |editor-first2=E. |author-last1=Rebman |author-first1=J.P. |author-last2=Oberbauer |author-first2=T.A. |author-last3=Léon de la Luz |author-first3=J.L. |year=2005 |title=Isla Guadalupe: restauración y conservación |chapter=La flora de Isla Guadalupe y sus islotes adyacentes |pages=67–81 |language=es |publisher=Instituto Nacional de Ecología |location=México |isbn=968-817-725-3 |url=http://www.inecc.gob.mx/descargas/publicaciones/477.pdf }}

{{cite book |last1=Gray |first1=A. |year=1876 |title=Miscellaneous Botanical Contributions |series=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |volume=11 |pages=83 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8862039}}

{{cite book |last1=Shreve |first1=F. |last2=Wiggins |first2=I.R. |year=1964 |title=Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert |volume=2 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford}}

{{cite journal |last1=Zedane |first1=L. |last2=Hong-Wa |first2=C. |last3=Murienne |first3=J. |last4=Jeziorski |first4=C. |last5=Baldwin |first5=B.G. |last6=Besnard |first6=G. |title=Museomics illuminate the history of an extinct, paleoendemic plant lineage (Hesperelaea, Oleaceae) known from an 1875 collection from Guadalupe Island, Mexico |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=117 |issue=1 |year=2016 |pages=44–57 |issn=0024-4066 |doi=10.1111/bij.12509|url=https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt1615g4rh/qt1615g4rh.pdf |doi-access=free }} {{open access}}

{{cite journal|last1=Van de Paer |first1=C. |last2=Hong-Wa |first2=C. |last3=Jeziorski |first3=C. |last4=Besnard |first4=G. |title=Mitogenomics of Hesperelaea, an extinct genus of Oleaceae |journal=Gene |volume=594 |issue=2 |year=2016 |pages=197–202 |issn=0378-1119 |doi=10.1016/j.gene.2016.09.007|pmid=27601255 }}

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External links

Photographs of isotype herbarium specimens at Missouri Botanical Garden:

[http://www.tropicos.org/ImageFullView.aspx?imageid=21956 Herbarium sheet MO-992469]
[http://www.tropicos.org/ImageFullView.aspx?imageid=21957 Herbarium sheet MO-992470]

Category:Oleeae

Category:Monotypic Oleaceae genera

Category:Endemic flora of Guadalupe Island

Category:Extinct flora of North America

Category:Plant extinctions since 1500

Category:Species made extinct by human activities