Pennantia baylisiana

Pennantia baylisiana
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Nationally Critical (NZ TCS)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Pennantiaceae
Genus:	Pennantia
Species:	P. baylisiana
Binomial name
Pennantia baylisiana (W.R.B.Oliv.) G.T.S.Baylis[3]

Pennantia baylisiana, commonly known as Three Kings kaikōmako or kaikōmako manawatāwhi (Māori), is a species of plant in the family Pennantiaceae (Icacinaceae in older classifications). It is endemic to Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, around 55 kilometres (34 mi) northwest of Cape Reinga, New Zealand. At the time of its discovery just one plant remained. This single tree grows on a scree slope inaccessible to browsing goats, and has been called "the world's loneliest tree".^[4] The species was discovered in 1945 by botanist Geoff Baylis and described in 1948, although it took decades before it was it was fully accepted as a distinct species of Pennantia. Although the only wild tree is female, it was successfully propagated from cuttings in the 1950s, one of which was induced to self-pollinate in 1985. Subsequent seed-grown plants have themselves set seeds, and the species has been replanted on the island, the adjoining mainland, and in public and private gardens around New Zealand.