What's the name of the only tree found in Easter Island until the mid-19?

Question

I know that when when Thor Heyerdahl arrived on the island it found no hard wood trees, but when the island was collonised by polinisians where was a hard-wood tree species unique to this island.

Answer 1

Easter Island, together with its closest neighbour, the tiny island of Isla Sala y Gómez 415 km further east, is recognized by ecologists as a distinct ecoregion, the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. Having relatively little rainfall contributed to eventual deforestation. The original subtropical moist broadleaf forests are now gone, but paleobotanical studies of fossil pollen and tree moulds left by lava flows indicate that the island was formerly forested, with a range of trees, shrubs, ferns, and grasses. A large palm, Paschalococos disperta, related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), was one of the dominant trees, as was the toromiro tree (Sophora toromiro). The palm is now extinct, and the toromiro is extinct in the wild. However, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Göteborg Botanical Garden are jointly leading a scientific program to reintroduce the toromiro to Easter Island.

The first European visitors commented on the island's treeless state; Roggeveen noted in 1722 that the island was "destitute of large trees", Gonzalez in 1770 commented "not a single tree is to be found capable of furnishing a plank so much as six inches in width."

Heyerdahl's work is controversial and  he was certainly not the first person to see Easter Island, I would give little credence to his ideas without support from other  sources.

Answer 2

That was Toromoro tree, Sophora toromoro, Mimosaceae ( some publications say Papilionaceae ), endemic in Easter Island.

In 1917, it was described by Skottsberg (1920-56) as a new species, from a single surviving tree found in the vast extinct crater, Rano Kao, on Easter Islands. The last scientist to see this tree alive was probably the Norwegian, Thor Heyerdahl, during his stay in 1955-56. Soon after, the tree died, and the Toromiro had become extinct in its wild habitat (Schlätzer, 1965).

The native insular people used the wood of this tree to carve the cultic Moai Kavakava:

http://www.worldartandantiques.com/waaga...

http://mikeyfreedom.wordpress.com/2007/1...

The source shows "Comments on the Conservation of Sophora toromiro Skottsb., from Easter Island" including renaturation, if you like to read more .

Photos on page 35 of this publication:

http://www.sterr.geographie.uni-kiel.de/...