Flora of Indonesia

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The flora of Indonesia consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with the tropical climate and round 18.000 islands Indonesia presents as a nation with the second largest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and the native ones. This is due to the geography of Indonesia, which is located between two continents. The archipelago consists also a variety of regions from the tropical rain forests of the northern lowlands and the seasonal forests of the southern lowlands through the hill and mountain vegetation, to subalpine shrub vegetation. Having the second longest shoreline in the world, Indonesia also consists many regions with swamps and coastal vegetation. These all participate in creating a huge vegetational biodiversity of Indonesia. There are about 28.000 species of flowering plants in Indonesia, consisting 2500 different kinds of orchids, 6000 traditional medicinal plants used as Jamu, 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of Dipterocarpus, including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood.

Flora of Indonesia also consists some unusual species, such as carnivorous plants. One exceptional, parasitic flower is known as Rafflesia arnoldi, named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr. Arnold, who discover the bloom in the depth of Bengkulu, southwest Sumatra. This parasitic plant has a large flower, does not produce leaves and grow on a certain liana on the rain forest floor. Another unusual plant is Amorphophallus titanum from Sumatra. A lot of species of insect trapping pitcher plant (Nepenthes spp.) can also be found in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Contents 1 Origin of Indonesian flora 2 History 3 Biodiversity Hotspots 3.1 Sundaland 3.2 Wallacea 3.3 West Irian Jaya and Papua 4 Indonesia`s national flowers 5 National love flora and fauna day 6 Current issues 7 See also 8 External link

[edit] Origin of Indonesian flora

The origin of flora in Indonesia is heavily affected by geographical and geological events in Asian continent and Australasian continent (now Australia).^[1] The present New Guinea island was connected with the present Australia continent, forming a supercontinent called the southern supercontinent Gondwana. This supercontinent began to break up 140 million years ago, and the New Guinea region (previously known as Sahul) moved towards the equator. As a result, animals from New Guinea traveled to Australian continent and vice versa, creating many different species living in different ecosystems. This activities still occur until the two regions separated completely.

Asian continent influences, on the other hand, is the result of the reformation of the Laurasia supercontinent, which existed after the breakup of Rodinia around 1 billion years ago. Around 200 million years ago, the Laurasia supercontinent splitted completely, forming Laurentia (now America) and Eurasia continents. Although this occurred, the mainland of the Eurasia continent, including China, was not separated completely from the Indonesian archipelago. As a result, plants from the Eurasia mainland could propagate to the archipelago, and, under a different ecosystems, new forms of species were formed.

In the nineteenth century, Alfred Russel Wallace proposed the idea of the Wallace Line, which is a line that divides Indonesian archipelago into two regions, the Asian biogeographical region (Sundaland) and the Australasia biogeographical Region (Wallacea).^[2] The line runs through the Malay Archipelago, between Borneo and Sulawesi (Celebes); and between Bali and Lombok.^[3]

See also: Wallace Line

[edit] History

The Indonesian archipelago, home of the spice islands, has been known since ancient time as the source of spices, such as clove, nutmeg, and pepper. The Molucca islands were, until the late eighteenth century, the only source of economically significant spices. In the colonial time, clove and nutmeg were the most valuable commodities after gold and silver for the most Europeans. During the Dutch colonial era in Indonesia, the Dutch also created many plantages of coffee, tea and sugar cane, mostly in Java.

Along with the history of Indonesia the sailors from India, China and Europe have brought also new kinds of plant species to this archipelago. Plant species, which are not native to this archipelago, such as tea, coffee and rubber tree are then established.

[edit] Biodiversity Hotspots

According to the Conservation International, there are currently two biodiversity hotspots in Indonesia. These are the Wallacea and the Sundaland. [1] Although not included in these hotspots the provinces of west Irian Jaya and papua also consist a large biodiversity. The Lorentz National Park, located in the province of papua has been declared since 1999 as the natural world heritage through the UNESCO [2].

[edit] Sundaland

Sundaland, which is located on the west part of the Indonesian archipelago, holds about 25,000 different species of plants. 15,000 of them are endemic to this region and cannot be found anywhere else. The Scyphostegiaceae is a plant family, which is represented by a single species, Scyphostegia borneensis, which is endemic in Borneo. Another 155 species of Dipterocarpus are also endemic to this island. Borneo also has more than 2,000 species of orchids. The forests in Sumatra include more than 100 species of Dipterocarpus, nearly a dozen of them are endemic to this island. The island Java has about 270 endemic orchid species.

At least 117 plant genera are endemic in this biodiversity hotspot. 59 of them are found in Borneo and 17 in Sumatra. Unique plants from this region are similar to ones from the Asian continent, mentioning Rafflesia arnoldii, the pitcher plants and Javanese Edelweiss (Anaphalis javanica) as examples.

[edit] Wallacea

It is estimated, that there are about 10,000 species of plants in this biodiversity hotspot region. About 1,200 species and 12 genera are endemic. The island of Sulawesi has about 500 endemic plant species. The islands of Moluccas have about 300 endemic plant species and the Lesser Sunda Islands consist of at least 120 endemic plant species. Little is known about the flora of this region. Three of these unique species; Agathis spp., Pterocarpus indicus, and Eucalyptus deglupta, are mentioned as examples.

[edit] West Irian Jaya and Papua

The flora of this region has somewhat the influence of the Australian continent. This region contain a continuous transect from snow cap mountains, lowland wetlands to tropical marine environment. This is the perfect place for such a huge number of diverse plant species. It has been estimated, that Papua and west Irian Jaya might consist about 20,000 to 25,000 species of vascular plants. An astonishing 60-90% of them may be endemic to this region. Little is known about the species of this region though.

[edit] Indonesia`s national flowers

On 5 June 1990, in a ceremony to mark the World Environment Day, President Soeharto declared three flowers as Indonesia's national flowers. These are the melati (Jasminum sambac), a small white flower with sweet fragrance, that plays an important role in the culture of Indonesia. The second flower is the anggrek bulan (Phalaenopsis amabilis) and of course the Rafflesia arnoldi.

[edit] National love flora and fauna day

In order to build respect and love for the Indonesian flora and fauna, the government has declared November 5th as the national love flora and fauna day. Annually there are postal stamps released with this motto. They show pictures of plants and animals, which are endemic or unique for a specific region or a province of Indonesia.

[edit] Current issues

Deforestation is currently a major problem in Indonesia. As a highly populous country with the tendency of rapid industrialisation, the need of natural resources and land also increases. Illegally created wildfire causes heavy smog around Indonesia`s neighbour countries.

According to the Indonesian department of forestry, there are currently 174 plants endemic in Indonesia listed as endangered species. [3]

Maintaining the balance between the need of economical growth of the country and the preservation of its natural heritage is not an easy duty. Just like other developing nations, Indonesia is currently trying to keep this balance. Ecotourism might be one solution to this problem. Using the biodiversity, Indonesia might improve the economical status of its issolated regions.

[edit] See also

• Category:Flora of Indonesia
• List of national parks of Indonesia
• Geography of Indonesia
• Fauna of Indonesia

[edit] External link

• ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation
• The Biodiversity hotspots
• (Indonesian) PIKA Database of endemic Flora and Fauna in Indonesia