Campnosperma seychellarum

Botanical Description

Campnosperma seychellarum is an evergreen tree. The tree was at one time heavily exploited for its wood, but is now too rare to be utilized. This species has a very narrow range and has suffered much from exploitation for timber and later for firewood. All subpopulations show very poor regeneration, which might be due to seed predation by rats. Being mainly confined to single isolated trees or small groups of trees, most subpopulations of this species are probably too small to be viable. In many of the sites there is also a severe competition from exotic species (e.g., Cinnamomum verum, Adenanthera pavonina, Sandoricum koetjype, Psidium cattleianum). This species was observed to be common before the cinnamon oil rush at the beginning of the last century. The use of the plant as firewood for the cinnamon oil distilleries has caused a decline in the population size over the past 100 years. The plant is classified as 'Critically Endangered' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(2013)[ 338 Title IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Publication Author Website http://www.iucnredlist.org/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat. ].