Rapa Iti Research Articles

"You Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee": New Insights on the Defensive, Economic, and Ritual Functions of a Fortified Pā on Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands

In Central-East Polynesia (CEP), development of warfare remains poorly documented except for the fortified villages of Rapa iti. In the Marquesas islands, previous research briefly reported the existence of defensive structures, especially some fortified pā, in areas usually qualified as 'marginal'. However, no site has yet been investigated in depth. In 2015, within the context of the larger Ua Huka project, we documented the pā of Mahaki, located between 700 and 800 m in altitude, and known in local oral traditions as a fortified refuge site for the Hokatu community during periods of conflicts. We recorded various categories of archaeological remains, the interpretations of which revealed a complex occupation of this area combining economic, defensive, and ritual functions. We argue that increasing inter-community violence and environmental pressure drove the progressive occupation of the high plateau. This study sheds new light on the Marquesan pā and their integration into the territories of the 'enata chiefdoms.

An Extinct New Rail (Gallirallus, Aves: Rallidae) Species from Rapa Island, French Polynesia

A new species of rail, Gallirallus astolfoi sp. nov., is described from Rapa Island (Rapa Iti), French Polynesia. The holotype (and single known specimen) is a left tarsometatarsus recovered from Tangarutu Cave. This rail species was apparently endemic to Rapa Iti and potentially flightless. It became extinct after human colonisation of the island.

Wood Anatomy of Argophyllaceae (Asterales): Adaptation in a Small Clade

Argophyllaceae (Argophyllum, 14 spp.; Corokia, 6 spp.; Lautea, 1 sp.), are shrubs that occur in the southwestern Pacific and eastern Australia. They occur in habitats where moisture is relatively common but dry days and mild frost may occur. The woods of these genera show enough distinctive features to justify their grouping in a single family: perforation plates with 10–20 bars, vessel elements narrow and numerous per mm2, imperforate tracheary elements about 50% longer than the vessel elements, axial parenchyma scarce, diffuse, multiseriate rays narrow and heterocellular (upright cells common in uniseriate rays), crystals absent, gum deposits common. These features group the genera of Argophyllaceae more closely with each other than with the nearest families in Asterales (Alseuosmiaceae, Phellinaceae). Probable apomorphies of the genera include helical thickenings in vessels and tracheids, together with abundant tracheids and rare septate fiber-tracheids (Corokia); almost total absence of axial parenchyma and tracheids combined with maximal abundance of septate fiber-tracheids and no helical thickenings (Argophyllum, Lautea). Lautea, formerly included within Corokia, has floral and foliar distinctions and is endemic to a single island, Rapa Iti. Woods of Argophyllaceae are alike in their ecological adaptations (perforation plates, vessel diameter and density) but the presence of tracheids and helical thickenings in Corokia suggest adaptations to frost and mild drought. As expected, vessels group more prominently in the tracheid-free species (Argophyllum, Lautea) but very little in the tracheid-rich genus Corokia.

Reassessment of the taxonomic status of Cyperaceae on Rapa Iti, Austral Islands, French Polynesia, with a new combination, Morelotia involuta

We reassess the current taxonomic status and distribution of Cyperaceae on Rapa Iti, Austral Islands, French Polynesia. This includes the poorly known Machaerina involuta H.St John (Cyperaceae, tribe Schoeneae), 86 years after it was first collected. Detailed morphological examination revealed that M. involuta belongs in Morelotia Gaudich. and the new combination, Morelotia involuta (H.St John) J.J.Bruhl & R.L.Barrett, is made here. Nineteen species of Cyperaceae are reported for Rapa Iti (10% of the vascular flora). The high diversity of Cyperaceae invites further discussion of the biogeographic connections and environmental conditions of Rapa Iti and a summary is provided. Notes on additional Cyperaceae named from Rapa Iti (Carex rapaensis (H.St John) K.L.Wilson, Carex stokesii F.Br., C. stokesii var. aristata F.Br., Cyperus rapensis F.Br., Eleocharis caribaea var. stokesii F.Br., Gahnia stokesii F.Br. and Rhynchospora stokesii F.Br.) are presented and a presently unidentified Carex is noted.

Ancestral range reconstruction of remote oceanic island species of Plantago (Plantaginaceae) reveals differing scales and modes of dispersal.

AimThe aim of this study was to resolve the phylogenetic placement of island taxa, reconstruct ancestral origins and resolve competing hypotheses of dispersal patterns and biogeographical histories for oceanic island endemic taxa within subgenus Plantago (Plantaginaceae).LocationJuan Fernández Islands, the Auckland Islands, Lord Howe Island, New Amsterdam Island, New Zealand, Tasmania, Falkland Islands, Rapa Iti and the Hawaiian Islands.TaxonIsland endemics within Plantago (Plantaginaceae), a globally distributed taxonomic group comprising approximately 250 species.MethodsWe use Bayesian phylogenetic and divergence time analyses and historical biogeographical analysis of molecular sequence data to infer the ancestral origins of the oceanic island species in Plantago.ResultsTaxa within subgenus Plantago form clades based on geographic proximities and challenge previous phylogenetic relationships and classification based on morphology. We infer that biogeographic histories of oceanic island taxa from multiple islands were shaped by dispersal at different scales and possibly by different types of birds. The highly remote Hawaiian Islands and Rapa Iti were colonized from North American taxa in a pattern corresponding to known migration routes of large marine birds, rather than from New Zealand as previously hypothesized. The island endemics of Juan Fernández, the Falkland Islands, Lord Howe, Auckland Islands and New Zealand are found to have sources in the nearest continental areas. The analyses confirm recent speciation within subgenus Plantago – which is particularly heightened in island lineages in Hawaii and Rapa Iti – but show slightly older divergence times than previous molecular dating studies.Main conclusionsUsing molecular data to infer ancestral ranges for plants with uncertain taxonomic relationships can greatly improve our understanding of biogeographical histories and help elucidate origins, dispersal modes and routes in widespread lineages with complex distribution patterns such as Plantago. We improve understanding of important floristic exchange areas between continents and islands as a result of long‐distance dispersal. We infer that a combination of both stepping stone dispersal and extreme long‐distance dispersal can shape insular floras, and that multiple floristic areas can be the sources of closely related island taxa. However, despite the successful dispersal of Plantago, radiation in island archipelagos is generally limited suggesting specific traits may limit diversification.

Tanaidacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from the Southern French Polynesia Expedition, 2014. I. Tanaidomorpha.

Shallow-water and littoral tanaids from the Southern French Polynesia Expedition, 2014 to Rapa Iti, Morane, Taravai and Mangareva, were examined with the tanaidomorphs represented by nine taxa, four of them described as new species within the genera Chondrochelia, Poorea, Triparatanais, and Zeuxoides. A new paratanaid genus is established, Periparatanais n. gen., and Nobili's Tanais seurati is rediscovered and redescribed as a species distinct from the Hawai'ian Zeuxo insularis n. comb. A broad comparison of tanaid faunas across the Polynesian and eastern Indo-Pacific regions based on the Marine Ecosystems of the World (MEOW) classification shows almost no species-level correspondences but several genera within four apseudomorphan and three tanaidomorphan families are consistently present.

Short-term recovery of native vegetation and threatened species after restoration of a remnant forest in a small oceanic island of the South Pacific

ABSTRACTBackground: Invasive alien species have transformed many natural ecosystems, especially on islands where endemic species are critically endangered, and where habitat restoration is a challenge.Aims: We set up an experimental protocol to aid the restoration of a native remnant forest by excluding feral ungulates and suppressing an invasive tree.Methods: Sixteen plots of 144 m2 were delimited in a dry-mesic forest located on the small oceanic island of Rapa Iti (South Pacific) and half of them were fenced. The invasive tree Psidium cattleianum was manually cut in four fenced and four unfenced plots. We monitored understorey species diversity and abundance every 6 months for a period of 30 months in twenty-four 4-m2 quadrats randomly selected in each plot.Results: A significant increase of native species richness occurred in the fenced plots where the invasive tree was suppressed, and a decrease of alien species diversity in the fenced plots. The abundance of native and alien species was significantly reduced in the fenced plots, where recruitment of endemic threatened species was observed.Conclusion: Rapid vegetation change occurred in 30 months. The understorey plant community response to ungulate exclusion and invasive tree removal strongly differed between native and alien species, with the recovery of native vegetation.

Monetary income, public funds, and subsistence consumption: the three components of the food supply in French Polynesia — a comparative study of Tahiti and Rapa Iti islands

The question of the impact of food supply on food practices rises in a particular sociocultural environment—French Polynesia, an overseas territory—forged by a political and economic post-colonial system inferring a triple modality of food resources: monetary incomes, public funds, and subsistence consumption. The comparison between two Polynesian islands, Tahiti mostly central and urban and Rapa mostly peripheric and rural, highlights the variability of intracommunity food exchanges and symbolized social meanings. Rapa’s choice of food resources collective control is readable through the importance of gifts, exchanges, and pooling food flows. The dimension of subsistence consumption, re-embedded in specific social temporality, allows local implementation of an integrated model of resource management.

Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language

Old Rapa, the indigenous Eastern Polynesian language of the island of Rapa Iti, is no longer spoken regularly in any cultural domains and has been replaced in most institutional domains by Tahitian. The remaining speakers are elders who maintain it only through linguistic memory, where elements of the language are remembered and can be elicited but they are not actively used in regular conversation. Reo Rapa, a contact language that fuses Tahitian and Old Rapa, which has developed from the prolonged and dominant influence of the Tahitian language in Rapa Iti since the mid nineteenth century, has replaced the indigenous Old Rapa language at home and between most people in regular social interaction. This article analyzes Reo Rapa through an examination of its genesis and its structure. This article furthermore defines Reo Rapa as a unique contact variety, a shift-break language: a language that resulted from stalled shift due to a collective anti-convergence sentiment in the speech community. This article further discusses a variety of Reo Rapa speech, New Rapa, which presents important questions for the natural-ness of language change and the visibility of actuation.

Studies on the benthic genus Sinophysis (Dinophysales, Dinophyceae) II. S. canaliculata from Rapa Island (French Polynesia)

:The poorly known dinoflagellate Sinophysis canaliculata, which was originally described from the Indian Ocean, was abundant in a collection from 2015 from Rapa Iti, a small, remote island of French Polynesia. Since the taxonomic description of this species was incomplete, a detailed morphological study was carried out. The theca was studied with epifluorescence microscopy using Solophenyl Flavine 7GFE500, a fluorescent dye specific to cellulose. This fluorophore was used successfully for the first time with a thecate dinoflagellate. It has the advantage of using blue excitation light and avoids the fading of fluorescence encountered with other dyes with long excitation time. Using this technique and high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy, the thecal plate pattern was clarified, and the epitheca had six major plates, 4E and 2A. A conspicuous apical pore was present on the left side of the epitheca. A smaller pore was located on the ventral left side of the apical pore. The apical plates A1 and A2 formed prominent projections which encircled and partly covered the pores. This thecal pattern agreed with the recent emended description of the genus. Two additional platelets, visible only from inside the cell, were possibly present in contact with the pores. In addition, the ‘canal’ cut on the left hypothecal plate H2 had a slit at its base. Seen from the inside, the slit was actually a sieve-like area comprising several small pores with a diameter of 80–100 nm. We hypothesise that this novel structure functions in the extrusion of mucus threads.

East Polynesian Islands as Models of Cultural Divergence: The Case of Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti

ABSTRACTThe diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural traits that included commensal species, language, technology, and other cultural practices. Following colonization however, island populations diverged in language, subsistence practices, degree of territoriality, settlement patterns, investment and forms of monumental architecture, and social organization. Driven by historical circumstances and varied environmental conditions, this divergence presents evolutionary case studies of alternative paths of cultural change. One explanatory approach to this evolutionary divergence involves isolating the critical ecological parameters that likely constrained and shaped the diverse history of island populations. Here, we offer a comparative evolutionary analysis that explores the divergent histories of two marginal East Polynesian islands: Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti.

Three new species of the Indo-Pacific fish genus Hime (Aulopidae, Aulopiformes), all resembling the type species H. japonica (Günther 1877).

Descriptions of three new species of the aulopid genus Hime from the central and western Pacific and presumably the easternmost Indian Ocean are presented. Hime surrubea sp. nov., confined to the Hawaiian Island region, has been misidentified in species accounts and faunal lists as H. japonica and although resembling it is separable from that species by its shorter caudal peduncle, slightly larger head, larger eye, especially relative to head size, and slightly smaller pectoral and pelvic fins. Hime capitonis sp. nov. is known conclusively only from seamounts off the southern tip of New Caledonia and Vanuatu, and is distinguishable by its distinctively large head (32.3-35.6% SL) and eyes (orbital diameter 10.8-13.0% SL) and relatively few scales between the anus and anal fin origin (7-9). The Indonesian H. caudizoma sp. nov. is so far known from only 8 specimens, acquired in markets in southeastern Lombok and presumably caught nearby in what would be regarded the eastern reaches of the Indian Ocean. The species is recognisable by its dorsal fin of rather uniform moderate height with nearly straight distal margin and 17 rather than 16 rays, none of which is filamentous in either sex, the second penultimate ray rather than anterior rays the longest in males. Like the other two described here, H. caudizoma has among the largest head and eyes of the family. Observations on the dorsal fin form and other features of H. microps Parin & Kotlyar, 1989 are provided based on a large male specimen collected at Rapa Iti, Austral Islands and a re-evaluation of the original description.

The terrestrial Isopoda (Crustacea, Oniscidea) of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), with descriptions of two new species.

Nine species of terrestrial isopods are reported for the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) based upon museum materials and recent collections from field sampling. Most of these animals are non-native species, but two are new to science: Styloniscus manuvaka sp. n. and Hawaiioscia rapui sp. n. Of these, the former is believed to be a Polynesian endemic as it has been recorded from Rapa Iti, Austral Islands, while the latter is identified as a Rapa Nui island endemic. Both of these new species are considered ‘disturbance relicts’ and appear restricted to the cave environment on Rapa Nui. A short key to all the oniscidean species presently recorded from Rapa Nui is provided. We also offered conservation and management recommendations for the two new isopod species.

Timothy J. Motley (4 June 1965–28 March 2013) and his passion for Ethnobotany and Pacific Islands flora

Timothy Jay Motley was born June 4th, 1965, to Roy and Joan (née Schaeffer) Motley, in Paxton, Illinois, USA. He grew up on a farm in east-central Illinois, and attended Armstrong-Ellis Grade School. He entered Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, where he completed a Bachelor of Science in 1987 and a Master of Science in Botany in 1989, having written a dissertation on Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus). In 1996 he earned a Ph.D. in Botany at the University of Hawaii, Manoa; his dissertation on evolutionary and reproductive biology of Labordia (Loganiaceae). While in Hawaii, he developed a particular interest for the Pacific islands flora and for ethnobotany, two passions that he pursued for the rest of his life. Shortly after finishing his doctorate, he worked at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) as Post-Doctoral Research Associate (1997−1998), Assistant Curator (1998−2004), Acting Chair (1999−2000; 2001−2002), and Project Head of Conservation Genetics in Island Systems (1998−2006) in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies. While working for NYBG, he travelled widely in regions where his projects would take him, mostly in the South Pacific, and visited the Kingdom of Tonga, Rapa Iti, Bora Bora, Papua New Guinea, Guam, Pohnpei, Fiji, Mauritius, Reunion, Vanuatu, Philippines, Jamaica, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii, and Tahiti. In 2006, he was hired as the J. Robert Stiffler Distinguished Professor of Botany and Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, and as the Director of Science at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, Norfolk, Virginia. During this period, he continued his expeditions to study and collect plants in the South Pacific and beyond, including Ecuador, the Galapagos Archipelago, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Mexico, the Louisiade Archipelago, and yearly field trips to underexplored regions of China. Sadly, after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest, he passed away on March 28, 2013, at age 47, at the peak of his career, leaving his wife, young son, and numerous colleagues and friends. His numerous ongoing projects, which are currently being continued by his graduate students and colleagues around the world, assure that his scientific legacy, his loving character, and his integrity will never be forgotten.

Radiation and decline of endodontid land snails in Makatea, French Polynesia.

The family Endodontidae Pilsbry, 1895comprised one of the most diverse groups of indigenous land snails of Pacific Islands. However, due to anthropogenic degradation of their habitats and predation by or competition with introduced species, most members of the family are now extinct or severely endangered. Based on limited and sporadic collections, the endodontidfauna of the raised coral island of Makatea in the western Tuamotu Archipelago was known to consist of four valid species, Mautodontha (Mautodontha) daedalea (Gould, 1846), Kleokyphus callimus Solem, 1976, K.hypsus Solem, 1976and Pseudolibera lillianae Solem, 1976, the last three of which were endemic. To these, we add 18 new species based on a reappraisal of museum collections and analysis of abundant new material collected in 2005: M. (M.) domaneschii, M. (M.) virginiae, M. (M.) harperae, M. (Garrettoconcha) aurora, M. (G.) occidentalis, M. (G.) temaoensis, M. (G.) makateaensis, M. (G.) passosi, M. (G.) spelunca, K. cowiei, P. solemi, P.matthieui, P. cookei, P. aubertdelaruei, P.extincta, P.paraminderae, P. elieporoii, and P. parva. The recently collected material also revealed new information on the morphology, intraspecific variation and distribution of the four previously known species, which are here revised and re-described. With 22 recognized taxa, the radiation of endodontidsin Makatea is second in species richness only to that of Rapa Iti in the Austral Islands, from where 24 endodontidshave been described. Despite intensive field work in Makatea in 2005, only M.(M.)daedaleawas found alive. All other Makatean endodontidswere represented solely by empty and worn shells and are probably extinct.

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will by Judith Schalansky

was upon his return from his Hajj that Malcolm broke from the Nation of Islam and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. Soon thereafter, from the pulpit, he denounced the serial infidelities and the multiple illegitimate children fathered by the Messenger of Allah. That denunciation was Malcolm’s death warrant. As for the subtitle, I sensed less a conscious attempt to continually reinvent himself than the imperious need to transform his society. Detroit Red needed to be metamorphosized into Malcolm X, of course, but his American society needed a quasireligious transformation as well. We are indebted to the late Manning Marable for choosing, as did Alex Haley, to resuscitate the life experience of Malcolm Little. Robert H. McCormick Jr. Franklin College, Switzerland Judith Schalansky. Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will. Christine Lo, tr. New York. Penguin. 2010. isbn 9780143118206 Born in East Germany during the Soviet era, Judith Schalansky was raised a prisoner in her own country. While legally bound by German Democratic Republic borders, she undertook her first voyage around the world when she traced her finger from the GDR to the Galápagos Islands (by way of the Panama Canal, at her mother’s suggestion ). Schalansky later earned degrees in both history of art and communication design, and now writes and teaches courses in typography at the Potsdam Technical Institute. The sum of her life’s experiences thus far, Atlas of Remote Islands combines gripping narrative, brilliant typography, and, overall, remarkably intelligent and informative design to tell richly imaginative stories from fifty of the world’s most remote islands. Schalansky’s love of maps was spawned by necessity and nurtured by circumstance, but that doesn’t prevent her from petitioning her readers (quite effectively) with each new page and urging them to see what she sees: a map is so much more than a utilitarian device for locating your position and finding your way. Her love for maps is immediately infectious. Lonely Island is a desolate, uninhabited Russian territory in the Arctic Ocean. It’s altogether void of noteworthy history, but Schalansky manages to make this twenty-squarekilometer icy blip on the globe interesting . Mystical, even. And the stories only get better from there. The island of Rapa Iti is the eventual home of Marc Liblin who, at the age of six, claimed to have been taught the island’s mysterious native language in his dreams while living in a small French town. Floreana is a small island whose two original settlers begrudgingly shared their solitary paradise with three new inhabitants , and following an island drama known only to its characters, four inhabitants die and one returns to the mainland to face speculation. And the twelve hundred inhabitants of Tikopia exercise heartbreaking population control in an effort to secure the future of their utopian existence. Schalansky notes her amazement that Los Angeles is an actual place where people are born and live. Likewise , the curious reader can’t help going to Google to search for additional information about each island, amazed that these places actually exist. These fantastic tales are true. The most stirring element in the collective history of these islands is the horrifying truth that even in paradise, we can’t escape how painfully human we are. These exotic islands, with perfect climates and beautiful beaches, are ripe with cruelty and suffering. Isolated from the corrupt culture of the mainland, these islands fare no better. Perhaps this is what Schalansky meant when she titled her introduction “Paradise is an island. So is hell.” John Tyler Allen New York City Paul Theroux. The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road. New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . 2011. isbn 9780547336916 The Tao of Travel is a delightful collection of un-commonplace remarks and episodes by writers who have traveled, edited by a master of the genre. Even writers who have not traveled happily make for good reading, especially when a summer heat dome or winter ’s sub-zero has driven one indoors. Such conditions affirm Huysmans’s thought that “the imagination could 78 | World Literature Today wltreviews ...

The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road by Paul Theroux

was upon his return from his Hajj that Malcolm broke from the Nation of Islam and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. Soon thereafter, from the pulpit, he denounced the serial infidelities and the multiple illegitimate children fathered by the Messenger of Allah. That denunciation was Malcolm’s death warrant. As for the subtitle, I sensed less a conscious attempt to continually reinvent himself than the imperious need to transform his society. Detroit Red needed to be metamorphosized into Malcolm X, of course, but his American society needed a quasireligious transformation as well. We are indebted to the late Manning Marable for choosing, as did Alex Haley, to resuscitate the life experience of Malcolm Little. Robert H. McCormick Jr. Franklin College, Switzerland Judith Schalansky. Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will. Christine Lo, tr. New York. Penguin. 2010. isbn 9780143118206 Born in East Germany during the Soviet era, Judith Schalansky was raised a prisoner in her own country. While legally bound by German Democratic Republic borders, she undertook her first voyage around the world when she traced her finger from the GDR to the Galápagos Islands (by way of the Panama Canal, at her mother’s suggestion ). Schalansky later earned degrees in both history of art and communication design, and now writes and teaches courses in typography at the Potsdam Technical Institute. The sum of her life’s experiences thus far, Atlas of Remote Islands combines gripping narrative, brilliant typography, and, overall, remarkably intelligent and informative design to tell richly imaginative stories from fifty of the world’s most remote islands. Schalansky’s love of maps was spawned by necessity and nurtured by circumstance, but that doesn’t prevent her from petitioning her readers (quite effectively) with each new page and urging them to see what she sees: a map is so much more than a utilitarian device for locating your position and finding your way. Her love for maps is immediately infectious. Lonely Island is a desolate, uninhabited Russian territory in the Arctic Ocean. It’s altogether void of noteworthy history, but Schalansky manages to make this twenty-squarekilometer icy blip on the globe interesting . Mystical, even. And the stories only get better from there. The island of Rapa Iti is the eventual home of Marc Liblin who, at the age of six, claimed to have been taught the island’s mysterious native language in his dreams while living in a small French town. Floreana is a small island whose two original settlers begrudgingly shared their solitary paradise with three new inhabitants , and following an island drama known only to its characters, four inhabitants die and one returns to the mainland to face speculation. And the twelve hundred inhabitants of Tikopia exercise heartbreaking population control in an effort to secure the future of their utopian existence. Schalansky notes her amazement that Los Angeles is an actual place where people are born and live. Likewise , the curious reader can’t help going to Google to search for additional information about each island, amazed that these places actually exist. These fantastic tales are true. The most stirring element in the collective history of these islands is the horrifying truth that even in paradise, we can’t escape how painfully human we are. These exotic islands, with perfect climates and beautiful beaches, are ripe with cruelty and suffering. Isolated from the corrupt culture of the mainland, these islands fare no better. Perhaps this is what Schalansky meant when she titled her introduction “Paradise is an island. So is hell.” John Tyler Allen New York City Paul Theroux. The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road. New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . 2011. isbn 9780547336916 The Tao of Travel is a delightful collection of un-commonplace remarks and episodes by writers who have traveled, edited by a master of the genre. Even writers who have not traveled happily make for good reading, especially when a summer heat dome or winter ’s sub-zero has driven one indoors. Such conditions affirm Huysmans’s thought that “the imagination could 78 | World Literature Today wltreviews Zhao Lihong A Boat to Heaven Southword Editions Chinese poet Zhao experienced the...

Threat of Invasive Alien Plants to Native Flora and Forest Vegetation of Eastern Polynesia

Eastern Polynesia, a phytogeographical subregion of Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, comprises the archipelagoes of the Cook Islands, the Austral Islands, the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Gambier Islands, the Pitcairn Islands, and Rapa Nui, which is the easternmost inhabited island of Polynesia. It consists of a total of about 140 tropical to subtropical oceanic islands that are among the most remote in the world, being over 3,000 km distant from the nearest continents. Because of this strong geographic isolation, the relatively young geological age, and small terrestrial surface (less than 4,000 km2) of these islands, the native flora of eastern Polynesia is impoverished, disharmonic, and with a relative low number of endemic genera (12). However, some high volcanic islands within these archipelagoes display a great diversity of habitats and a highly endemic flora (e.g., 50% for the vascular plants in Nuku Hiva, 45% in Tahiti) with striking cases of adaptative radiation (e.g., in the genera Bidens, Cyrtandra, Glochidion, Myrsine, and Psychotria). Most of these endemic taxa are restricted to montane rain forests and cloud forests. These upland wet forests are not directly threatened by habitat destruction by humans or disturbance by large mammals but rather by invasive alien plants. Native forests of eastern Polynesian islands are invaded by aggressive introduced species (e.g., Lantana camara and Psidium cattleianum in most island groups; Syzygium jambos in Pitcairn, Tahiti, and Nuku Hiva; Ardisia elliptica, Cestrum nocturnum, Spathodea campanulata in Tahiti and Rarotonga; Rubus rosifolius in the Society Islands, Hiva Oa, and Rapa Iti). Therefore, one of the highest priorities for the long-term conservation of the original native flora and forest vegetation of eastern Polynesia should be given to the study (invasion dynamics and ecological impacts) and control (strategy and methods) of the current invasive alien plants and to the early detection and eradication of potential plant invaders. Eastern Polynesia, with its small, diverse, and isolated oceanic islands, also offers opportunities to test hypotheses on the vulnerability of islands to invasion by alien species, with or without disturbance.