title: Haptanthus story: rediscovery of enigmatic flowering plant from Honduras.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Finding a plant or animal that was previously considered extinct is a fortunate (but rare) event in biology. Haptanthus hazlettii was collected from Honduras (Central America) in 1980, but numerous attempts to re-collect it have failed. Reproductive organs of Haptanthus are unique among angiosperms and make the search for phylogenetic relations difficult. Unfortunately, all attempts to extract DNA from the existing sample were unsuccessful.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2010, we organized a small expedition to Honduras and were able to re-collect this plant, extract DNA from dried samples, and sequence the barcoding region of rbcL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We obtained phylogenetic trees with reliable support for the placement of Haptanthus as a new member of Buxaceae (boxwood family).
authors: Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota 58707, USA. dactylorhiza@gmail.com
authors: Alexey
authors: A
authors: Shipunov
authors: Ekaterina
authors: E
authors: Shipunova