Sophora toromiro

Sophora toromiro, commonly known as toromiro, is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to Easter Island. Sophora toromiro is extinct in the wild due to overharvesting and overgrazing, but some individuals survive in botanical and private collections. It holds significant cultural importance for the Rapa Nui people, known for its statues, ceremonial objects, and other tools made from the wood. The species serves as proof that human intervention of a natural environment can drastically change the composition of native flora negatively, even to the point of extinction in the wild. Those few specimens which survive today are cultivated in certain botanical gardens around the world, though they are limited due to a small genetic pool. Conservation efforts to re-introduce these tree seedlings back to the island in the 1980s failed but hopes remain that there will eventually be a successful reintroduction of Sophora toromiro in the wild.