Roussea simplex

Roussea simplex is an endemic climbing shrub of Mauritius, currently known to be confined in nine locations around the south-east, centre and south-west regions of the island. This climbing shrub mainly grows in wet, high elevation cloud forests, such as at Le Pouce, Mauritius' third highest mountain .

The flowers of Roussea produce copious amounts of nectar and are pollinated by the blue-tailed day gecko Phelsuma cepediana. The fruit secretes a gelatinous substance that contains the minute seeds. The blue-tailed gecko licks up this secretion and disperses the seeds in its droppings. More recently, the Mauritius bulbul, Hypsipetes olivaceus was revealed as a more efficient pollinator of Roussea given its long beak and ability to fly longer distances.

Pests and diseases. Technomyrmex albipes, a small ant introduced to Mauritius that came originally from the Indo-Pacific area, seals the flowers of Roussea with clay to protect mealy bugs. These drink the sap and excrete a sugary urine that is collected by the ants. The ants attack animals that visit the plant, and so prevent the blue-tailed day gecko from pollinating the flowers and from eating the fruit, and in this way seriously hampering the reproduction of Roussea. Two new species were reported to visit flowers for nectar, the native Plagiolepis madecassa and the invasive yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes. However, it has also been reported that the infestation by alien ants varies seasonally and occurs mostly on plants that have collapsed closer to the ground, due to competition by surrounding alien invasive plants, such as strawberry guava.

Roussea simplex was described in 1789 by James Edward Smith, who placed it in the Campanulaceae. In 1830, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle however rejected this assignment and considered ties with the Escalloniaceae, Loganaceae or Goodeniaceae. His father, Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, eventually erected a then monotypic family Rousseaceae in 1839. John Lindley saw close relationships with Argophyllum, Ixerba and Brexia and included Roussea in the Brexiaceae in 1853. Most later authors agreed with Lindley, but differed about the rank of this grouping, considering an order, family, subfamily (within the Saxifragaceae or the Escalloniaceae) or tribe (in the Escallonioideae in the Saxifragaceae). Other authors remained doubtful about the connection with Brexia, as suggested by differences in pollen, anatomy and chemistry. Since the development of methods to compare DNA to determine relationships between organisms (phylogenetics), the affinities of Roussea to the Asterales have been affirmed repeatedly.