Lebronnecia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae.[1] The sole species is Lebronnecia kokioides, a very rare flowering shrub.
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.[2]
It is now being cultivated in Hawaii.[3]