We dedicate this Flora of Nauru to Joseph Detsimea Audoi, his family and the people of the Republic of Nauru who have had their precious island and its flora destroyed and degraded by wars and exploitation beyond their control. Lisle Newby, then Director of Education, who along with Joe Audo was a major supporter of the project and provided valuable logistical support throughout. In her company they visited a large part of the interior of the island and some local gardens and collected many plant specimens.
A COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS OF THE VEGETATION AND FLORA OF THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC OCEAN ISLAND OF NAURU.
INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE VEGETATION AND FLORA
Although a number of people have collected plants on Nauru over the past century, this constitutes the first extensive flora of vascular plants from the island. The plants are listed in alphabetical order by family and species within families, starting with the ferns and gymnosperms and then angiosperms, with monocotyledons listed first. The only substantial publications on Nauru's vegetation include studies by Manner, Thaman and Hassall (1984 and 1985) on vegetation changes caused by phosphate mining; a list of Nauruan plant names by Thaman, Manner and Hassall (1985); and the "Vegetation of Nauru and the Gilbert Islands" by Thaman (1992).
Geographical Checklist of Micronesian Dicotyledons by Fosberg, Sachet and Oliver Geographical Checklist of Micronesian Pteridophyta and Gymnosperms and Geographical Checklist of Micronesian Monocotyledons are also important and list most cited species and specimens examined before 1980.
CURRENT STUDY
BACKGROUND ON NAURU
With the beginning of the phosphate trade, the whole pattern of Nauruan life began to change. Much of the limited agricultural production is in the hands of migrant communities. In terms of Nauru's economic future, Nauru's phosphate deposits are predicted to be depleted shortly after the turn of the century.
Morinda citrifolia, Premna serratifolia and the exotics, Lantana camara and Psidium guajava, could become important understory components.
A COMPILATION OF THE VASCULAR FLORA OF NAURU
All other names were collected by Thaman, Manner and Hassall as part of the current study. 4 refers to Brian Scully of the University of California, Riverside, who also collected in the 1980s and most of his specimens are also housed at the Smithsonian Institution;. Manner and D.C. Hassall of the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, who collected over two two-week periods in November 1980 and July 1981, respectively, and whose specimens are deposited in the South Pacific Regional Herbarium at the University of the South Pacific, Suva;.
8 refers to John Swarbrick of the University of Queensland, Gatton College, who collected weed species on Nauru in June 1988 and whose specimens are stored in Queensland with duplicates in the South Pacific Regional Herbarium.
VASCULAR PLANTS OF NAURU
PTERIDOPHYTA (Ferns and Fern Allies)
Terrestrial and epiphytic fern with a vigorous creeping rhizome; stipes, up to 30 cm or longer; leaves, up to 40 cm or more long, broadly triangular-ovate in outline, simple but deeply and broadly divided into lanceolate acute lobes; sori, large, usually in two rows on lower surface of lobes. Small inconspicuous epiphytic dimorphic fern with a long creeping slender rhizome; leaves spaced along slender rhizomes; sterile leaves, 4 to 10 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm wide, simple, oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate; fertile leaves, up to 15 cm or longer and about 7 mm to 1 cm wide;. Small erect terrestrial perennial herb, up to about 30 cm or taller, arising from a stout rhizome, with many successively biforked green 3-angled, longitudinally ribbed branches, about 2 mm in diameter.
Small dimorphic fern, 15 to 50 cm high, with a brown scaly rhizome; stems, up to 30 cm or longer, straw-colored; sterile leaves, 6 to 10 cm long, lanceolate, smooth, bipinnate, pinnules variable in size and shape, usually oblong to linear-lanceolate, sharply serrate; fertile leaves, 15 to 25 cm long, pinnate or bipinnate, pinnules, up to 15 cm long and 7 to 10 mm wide, widely spaced, linear; sori, marginal, almost serrate.
GYMNOSPERMAE (Gymnosperms)
Small dioecious palm-like sparsely branched plant, up to 2 m or taller, with a robust brown-ringed trunk; leaves, up to 1 m or longer and 30 cm or more wide, gathered in a rosette at the crown, leaf-like, smooth, pinnate; Pinnae, up to 30 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide, narrowly lanceolate, with prominent central margins; male inflorescences, up to approx. 50 cm by 10 cm or more, borne in the center of the leaves, brown, cone-shaped, consisting of pollen-bearing scales; female inflorescence and fruit borne on margins of modified brown, woolly leaves, up to 30 cm long; fruit, up to 5 cm long, ovoid, somewhat compressed, with a thin fleshy orange-brown covering and nut-like seeds, with poisonous kernels.
ANGIOSPERMAE (Angiosperms or Flowering Plants)
MONOCOTYLEDONA
Perennial herb, up to 1.5 m; leaves, up to 30 cm or more in diameter, dark green, long-stalked, rounded heart-shaped; petiole, long. Thick-stemmed erect perennial herb, less than 1 m tall, with a ringed, reed-like stem; leaves, up to 30 cm long and 15 cm wide, narrowly ovate-oblong but variable, green with many irregular ivory-white spots. Perennial herbaceous climbing, winding vine; leaf blades, up to 30 long and 20 cm wide, glossy green, heart-shaped, tapering to a fine point; petioles 10 to 20 cm long.
Perennial smooth-stemmed trailing herb, up to 30 cm tall; leaves, up to 1-5 cm long and 3.5 cm wide ovate, black purple. Erect herbaceous bulbous perennial, up to 75 cm tall; leaves, approx. 30 cm long, stiff, narrow, almost pleated;. Erect green herb, up to 50 cm tall; leaves, 25 to 50 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide, green, round, tubular, clustered, with white, slightly swollen stems, which do not produce bulbs.
Evergreen perennial herb, up to 30 cm or higher, with tuberous rhizomes; leaves, 15 to 30 cm long and 1.5 to 2.5 cm wide, rosette or tufted, grassy, arcuate, variegated with mid-green and white or yellow. Woody palm-like erect shrub, up to 3 m or higher; leaves, up to 90 cm long by 10 cm wide, arcuate, green or longitudinal - - green and. Clumping herb, up to 50 cm tall; leaves, ovate with many oblique grooves or ribs spreading from the midrib;.
Tree-like perennial shrub, up to 2 m or taller; leaves, about 60 cm long and 5 cm wide, sharply pointed, green to grey-blue, borne in rosettes on a branched or unbranched stem;. Globular herb, rarely up to 10 cm; leaves, up to 25 cm long, narrow, strap-shaped, curved downwards; flowers, about 2.5 to 3 cm long, solitary, pink to rose red, borne on erect or bent flower stalks, up to 15 cm long. Giant perennial clump-forming woody grass with segmented green to yellowish stems (culms), up to 15 m tall and 8 cm wide; leaves, 9 to 30 cm long and 1 to 4 cm wide, pinnate, lanceolate, rough beneath and on the edges; flowers, spikelets, 2 to 3.5 cm long, borne in large leaf clusters at the nodes.
Erect herb, up to 2.5 m high; leaves, 50 to 70 cm long and 7 to 15 cm wide, oblong-lanceolate; inflorescence, a curved flower stem, 1.5 to 3 m long, with a somewhat loose or drooping open flower cluster.
DICOTYLEDONAE
Perennial creeping herb, up to 30 cm high, root at the joints; leaves, 5 to 10 cm long and 2.5 to 6 cm wide, broad, ovate, ornamental, with a network of fine white veins; petioles 0.5 to 3 cm long; inconspicuous flowers borne on spikes, up to 6 cm long, with ovate bracts, less than 1 cm long, with. Erect or decumbent, unarmed h&b, up to 20 to 60 cm high; stems, reddish, longitudinally grooved; leaf blades, 3 to 7.5 cm long and 2.5 to 5 cm wide, alternate, green above, paler below, broadly lanceolate or ovate, obtuse or slightly notched at tips, smooth on both surfaces; petioles, 2.5 to 5 cm. Hairy perennial herb with spreading to ascending stems, up to about 80 cm tall; leaves, 1 to 6 cm long and 1 to 3.5 cm wide, opposite, broadly lanceolate, coarsely toothed, acute or subacute, cuneate at base, oblique on both surfaces; petioles, 5 to 15 mm long; flower heads, about 1 cm long and 2 cm wide, terminal, borne on erect pilose stems, 10 to 30 cm long;.
Erect loosely branched annual herb, 15 to 60 cm tall, stems longitudinally ribbed; leaves, 1 to 7 cm long and 1. Succulent, succulent, erect, branched annual herbs, up to c. 60 cm high; leaves, up to 5 cm long and 4 cm wide, simple, alternate, lanceolate, acuminate, toothed (true; petiole, usually glandular at base;. Rough, somewhat woody (subherbaceous), creeping or twining, night-flowering (climbing) vine; leaves, 5 to 16 cm long and approx.
prostrate or climbing herbaceous vine; leaves, palmately compound with 5 leaflets, leaflets oblong to lanceolate, 2.5 to 6 cm long;. Erect, branched, fetid annual subshrub, up to 2 high, with glabrous stems longitudinally furrowed and often woody near base; leaves, 11 to 24 cm long, alternate, compound stalked, with 4 to 6 pairs of opposite leaflets; leaflets, 3 to 12 cm long and 2 to 4 cm wide, terminal. Erect subshrub, 50 cm to 1 m tall, branched below; leaves, alternate, long-petiolate, trifoliate; petioles, 2 to 4 cm long;
A small, dense, broad-crowned, often gnarled tree, 3 to 10 (rarely 15 to 18) m tall, intricately branched when mature, with many low branches spreading from a short trunk ; younger branches gray-pubescent, older glabrate with grayish, rather smooth, very fibrous and mucilaginous bark and bast fibers; leaves, up to 15 or 20 cm long and nearly as broad, rounded-ovate, abruptly acuminate, base deeply cordate, velvety pubescent when young, glabrate and dark green above, stellate gray to white -tomentose below and slightly glaucous, palm 7- to 9- nerved with linear basal glands dorsally; petioles, up to 12 or 15 cm long; stipules, 2 to 4 cm long, broadly connate, leaving annular scars at the end; inflorescence, terminal or axillary, solitary or in open cymes or panicles with few flowers; epicalyx conspicuous, shorter than calyx, with 8 to 12 deltoid, acute segments (bracts); pedicels 1 to 3 cm long; Small dioecious tree, up to 8 m tall, usually with long aerial roots or buttresses; leaves, about 8 to 15 cm long and 5 to 8 cm wide, ovate, with a slightly asymmetrical base, dark green when dry to bright yellow with purplish veins, lateral nerves in 3 to 9 pairs ;. Erect, glabrous, somewhat succulent annual herb, up to 1 m tall, with tuberous roots; leaves, 5 to 10 cm long, opposite, ovate-lanceolate, apex long pale-acuminate, base broadly connate; petioles up to 2.5 cm long; inflorescence, bisexual, in terminal clusters; perianth, 3.5 to 5 cm long, 5-.
Pubescent, or somewhat downy, climbing or sometimes climbing (scand) shrub, up to 1 m or higher, with angular branches; leaves, 2 to 10 cm long and 1.5 to 6 cm wide, opposite, elliptic to ovate, acute or obtuse, base rounded or cuneate, nearly glabrous, with distinct pinnate nerves. Shrub or small tree, up to 6 m or taller, with square branches; leaves, 15 to 30 cm long and 6 to 18 cm wide, opposite, broadly elliptic or slightly ovate, acute or obtuse, dark green, glossy, pubescent when young; petioles, 1 to 2 cm long, narrowly grooved by current. Erect shrub, up to 4 m or taller, with drooping or rambling branches; leaves, 5 to 18 cm long and 3 to 7 cm wide, opposite.
