Only a few hundred specimens are known to exist. The plant was first described in 1966, after a single tree with a few seedlings was discovered on
Tahuata, an island in the
Marquesas group of
French Polynesia that had been severely deforested by livestock: cattle, goats, horses, and pigs. Further specimens were later found on the nearby island of
Mohotani, uninhabited by humans, but similarly deforested by sheep, who seem to avoid eating the plant. It is now being cultivated in
Hawaii. ==References==