The Paleotropical Kingdom (Paleotropis) is a floristic kingdom comprising tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania (including Australia), as proposed by Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan. Its flora is characterized by about 40 endemic plant families, e.g. Nepenthaceae, Musaceae, Pandanaceae, Flagellariaceae. Part of its flora, inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana or exchanged later (e.g. Piperaceae with pantropical distribution and but few warm temperate representatives), is shared with the Neotropical Kingdom, comprising tropical areas of Central and South America. Moreover, the Paleotropical flora influenced the tropical flora of the Australian Kingdom. The Paleotropical Kingdom is subdivided into five floristic subkingdoms according to Takhtajan (or three, according to Good) and about 13 floristic regions. In this article the floristic subkingdoms and regions are given as delineated by Takhtajan.
Contents |
10 endemic families (incl. Dioncophyllaceae, Pentadiplandraceae, Scytopetalaceae, Medusandraceae, Dirachmaceae, Kirkiaceae), many endemic genera.
9 endemic families, more than 450 endemic genera, about 80% endemic species. It ceased to be influenced by the African flora in the Cretaceous, but underwent heavy influence of the Indian Region's flora.
11 endemic families (incl. Degeneriaceae, Barclayaceae, Mastixiaceae) and many endemic genera
No endemic families, many endemic genera. The flora is mostly derivative from that of the Indo-Malesian Subkingdom.
Several endemic families (incl. Amborellaceae, Strasburgeriaceae) and more than 130 endemic genera (incl. Exospermum and Zygogynum). The flora is partially shared with the Indo-Malesian Subkingdom and the Australian Kingdom.
|
||||||||||||||||||||