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 left:ISS002-E-709-47 Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov Kiritimati Kiritimati is the kiribatian notation of the formerly english name of the island, Christmas (look at annotation for pronunciation). With its land area of 624 km sq this atoll has the largest landmass of all atolls world wide, at its highest point, on the southeastern peninsula, it rises 13 m above the sea. Kiritimati is home of several seabird species but has only one landbird, the Bokikokiko or Kiritimati Warbler (Acrocephalus a. aequinoctialis), which is on the other hand the only endemic bird (subspecies) here. Despite its giant size the Kiritimati atoll is home to only a small number of plant species, throughout species that can be found commonly on most every other atoll as well. |
 links:Cook Islet in the outermost northwest of the atoll. Photo: Angela K. Keppler; by courtesy of Angela K. Keppler http://www.pbif.org |
| Flora of Kiritimati (almost complete) (green = pictures) Boerhavia repens, Boerhavia tetrandra, Cassytha filiformis, Digitaria pacifica, Eragrostis paupera, Fimbristylis cymosa, Guettarda speciosa, Heliotropium anomalum var. mediale, Heliotropium foertherianum, Kadua romanzoffiensis, Lepidium bidentatum, Lepturus repens, Pisonia grandis, Portulaca lutea, Scaevola taccada, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Sida fallax, Suriana maritima, Tribulus cistoides |
| References: - Lyndon Wester: Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Northern Line Islands. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Atoll Res. Bull. 287: 1-38. 1985 |