Malden Island

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left: ISS007-E-14788 Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov Malden Island This officially uninhabitet island is a raised atoll, a so called Makatea island. The island's size is about 39 km², of which 13 km² are for the completely enclosed lagoon. Malden's has a very unsettled history. Once it was inhabited by Polynesians, these brought the Polynesian Rats onto the island and left behind several stone ruins. But when Europeans discovered the island in the year 1825, it was abandoned. The dense Pisonia forests in the island's interior were almost completely destroyed duringt the guano mining between the years 1860 and 1927. During that time Cats were introduced to the island, which on their part exterminated the Polynesian Rats, but which also not spared the numerous seabirds. Finally in the year 1957 Malden Island was stage for the firts british test of a H-bomb. Today Malden Island is under conservation.

Flora of Malden Island (almost complete) (grün = Bilder) Boerhavia albiflora, Boerhavia repens, Cordia subcordata, Heliotropium foertherianum, Lepturus pilgerianus, Pisonia grandis, Portulaca lutea, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Sida fallax, Tribulus cistoides, Triumfetta procumbens

References: - Dieter Mueller-Dombois; Francis Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands. Springer, 1997