Rapa Nui Nettletree (Trema sp.)  

The genus Trema is in need of a review.  By all means, subfossil pollen, found in the sediments of the Rano Kau crater, shows that a species of this genus once grew on Easter Island.  

This pollen may belong to a neotropical species, e.g. the Jamaican Nettletree (Trema micrantha (L.) Blume), or may come from the extant Pale Nettletree (Trema discolor (Brongniart) Blume), a plant that still occurs in some places within Polynesia today, or, most probably, from an endemic and therefore extinct species.  

*********************  

edited: 23.03.2018