X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Corps de Garde


Corps de Garde

It is also famous for a nature reserve of about 90.33 ha with a very rare flora such as Trochetia parviflora which was rediscovered on a mountain slope in 2001, Pilea trilobata which was rediscovered in 2005 and the Mandrinette.

Hibiscus fragilis

The Mandrinette (Hibiscus fragilis) is an extremely rare endemic shrub only known from steep slopes of the mountains Corps de Garde and Le Morne Brabant on Mauritius and from two further plants on Rodrigues.

Trochetia parviflora

After botanist Philip Burnard Ayres collected the last known specimens in 1863 it was long regarded as lost until 76 individuals were rediscovered in April 2001 by the Mauritian botanists Vincent Florens and Jean-Claude Sevathian, from the Mauritius Herbarium, on a rocky slope of the Corps de Garde six kilometres apart from the type locality.


Dombeya acutangula

The natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests but it is almost extinct due to habitat loss; some 50 plants remain in the wild, growing in a narrowly circumscribed area at Corps de garde, Trois Mamelles, Yemen, Magenta and Chamarel.


see also