Abutilon julianae

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Abutilon julianae
Conservation status
Critically endangered (EPBC Act)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Malvales Family: Malvaceae Genus: Abutilon Species: A. julianae
Binomial name
Abutilon julianae Endl.[1]

Abutilon julianae is a small shrub of the genus Abutilon believed endemic to Norfolk Island, where it was last seen about 1910. For more than seventy years it was considered extinct, apparently killed out by grazing stock.

In the mid 1980s control of feral rabbits on nearby Phillip Island allowed plant seedlings to survive in accessible areas for the first time in more than one hundred years, and some seedlings of Abutilon julianae were discovered. As the species had never been recorded on Phillip Island this was one of the first unexpected bonus benefits of rabbit control (and subsequent eradication). Plants must have survived in the few cliff-bound places inaccessible to both rabbits and people to provide the source of seed for the newly-discovered plants. The species is now widely grown on Norfolk Island and natural regeneration on Phillip Island is growing well, though still very rare. It is listed as Critically Endangered under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

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