The genus Farandona contains only one species, the Thorny Bass. Farandona is a genus with characteristics such as: poison thorns, elongated pistil, and roots that may stretch up to 2 mts underground. The first evolved as acquatic around 20 million years ago around the Marianas, when the Marianas submerged the Farandona evolved first as semi acquatic and then fully terrestrial. There are some plants such as the Kibara that are distantly related to Farandona, since an extinct type of Kibara Kibara Nipponica is where the Farandona genus split off from the Kibara genus around 55 million years ago. Apart from the Thorny Bass Farandona Marianica, there was until 1967 a separate species of Farandona, Farandona Hispaniola who was overgrazed and eventually got extinct except for some 2 specimens that were brought to the "El Retiro" Botanical Gardens in Madrid, Spain.The last specimen died in a greenhouse in the "El Retiro" botanical gardens in Madrid, Spain.They are endemic to the Marianas islands.
The Thorny Bass, Farandona Marianica, is a flower endemic to the Marianas Islands. It is blue-green and has sharp thorns in the stem with poison. Only the native Waikwnre tribe knew a cure to ´´Bass Poison´´ as it is called, but they died out 50 years ago. The stem is thick with a circumference of 4 inches. The petals, most of which are dark purple with rosy shade, have been used by the natives of the area for centuries as medication. It is the last member of the genus Farandona and has dissappeared from several islands due to habitat loss and overpopulation. The Thorny Bass´s name Bass is because the natives plucked out the thorns and used the stem as a resonator for danger alarms.
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