Delight as record numbers of endangered tree found on tiny Seychelles island

Record numbers of Wright's gardenia, one of the rarest and most fragrant trees in the world, have been counted on the tiny tropical island of Aride in the Seychelles.

- Patrick Barkham

The 72-hectare granite island in the Indian Ocean is the only place in the world where the critically endangered tree grows naturally. The tree was once found on other larger islands in the Seychelles archipelago but its sturdy wood was harvested for firewood, leading to its disappearance from everywhere except Aride.

A team of eight staff and volunteers for the Island Conservation Society of the Seychelles, which manages Aride for biodiversity, spent 272 hours scouring the challenging terrain of the island to identify and count the rare trees.

They found 2,913 trees, nearly 1,000 more than in the previous census in 2017. Some trees had more than 1,000 seedlings nearby, indicating that the species is now thriving on the island.