This plant was known only from a drawing made in 1877, and was believed extinct shortly afterwards. It was rediscovered by a schoolboy in the 1980s who recognised it from the drawing. There is only one specimen in the wild, growing right beside the main road. Luckily it has now been saved as a species with the help of Kew Gardens who managed to propagate it from cuttings, but although it flowered freely it could not be persuaded to set seed until 2003 when the correct conditions were finally identified.  This one is growing in the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation (started by Gerald Durrell) plant nursery:  

 

There are lots of other rare endemic plants. Here is a local Pandanus, the screw pine, showing why it got its common name:

          

Rodrigues now has two small upland forest reserves. The native forest has been heavily degraded but many species have survived in very small numbers, enabling their propagation in cultivation. Native trees are being underplanted in the reserves and the exotics slowly cleared eventually as the natives mature, resulting a a recreated native forest. It’s great to see (and the last two remaining birds have also been saved, having got down to only a few pairs each at one stage), but the reserves serve also to show just how much has gone.