Scientists Find New Plant in Fiji

Scientists have discovered a new flowering plant belonging to the scarce Medinilla group on Fiji's Kadavu island, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Friday.

"Although the plant was first found in August of 2010, it has taken this long to go through the process and verify it," IUCN spokeswoman Ewa Ewa Magiera told Agence France Presse.

The plant was found during a biodiversity assessment of the Nakasaleka district carried out as part of IUCN's Water and Nature Initiative (WANI), Magiera said.

There are some 193 known species of Medinilla in Madagascar, Africa, South Asia and the Pacific Islands, according to the conservation body.

Eleven can only be found in Fiji, among them the Tagimoucia flower, the country's floral emblem.