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The research group Plants of the Indopacific (PITA) brings together the research on the vascular plants of the Malesian region.
The immense, and very incompletely known diversity of flowering plants and ferns of the Malesian region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam) and adjacent Thailand and Indochina is central to the programme of this research group. It co-ordinates the international Flora Malesiana project, a first scientific inventory of about 42,000 flowering plants and ferns carried out by a voluntary network of over 120 taxonomists all over the world, and all major herbaria in the Malesian region. Selected species-rich genera from widespread families (currently Annonaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosae, Orchidaceae, Poaceae, Urticaceae and various Pteridophytes) are singled out for semi-monographic, phylogenetic and biogeographical analysis, using macromorphology, characters from pollen, leaf and wood anatomy, and DNA sequences.
The historical biogeography of the Malesian archipelago with its complex geological history and mixture of gondwanic and laurasian flora elements is also a focus of study. The group works closely together with the MOFEC-Tropenbos programme in East Kalimantan to provide user-friendly field guides to primary and secondary forest tree species and develop biodiversity indicators for disturbance and regeneration. The ethnobotany and vegetation of Papua (Irian Jaya) is studied in the framework of the interdisciplinary ISIR programme. Electronic user-friendly identification tools are developed together with ETI (Amsterdam) in the form of interactive CD-ROMs on major Malesian plant families such as Orchidaceae and Leguminosae.
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Flora
MalesianaFlora Malesiana aims at a critical, semi-monographic treatise of the circa 41,500 species of flowering plants and ferns from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. This international flora project with circa 130 voluntary collaborators all over the world, is coordinated from Leiden, and members of the Tropical Phanerogam research group are authors for many of the family treatments. Currently the families Asclepiadaceae, Araceae, Cucurbitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Myristicaceae, Orchidaceae, Leguminosae - Papilionoideae, Poaceae, and Winteraceae are under revision.
Flora Malesiana is also a major source of information for more local floristic projects, such as the interactive key to the tree and shrub genera of Borneo.
Contact between participants in the Flora Malesiana project is promoted by the biannual newsletter Flora Malesiana Bulletin, and by the Flora Malesiana Listserver.
On the 4th Flora Malesiana congess in Kuala Lumpur it was decided to set up a Flora Malesiana Website and a Flora Malesiana Listserver. Thanks to the efforts of Kamarudin Mat-Salleh the Flora Malesiana Listserver is now running.
You can subscribe to the list by sending a message containing:
subscribe floramalesiana Your Name
in the body, not the subject line, of the message, to the following address:
As soon as the Flora Malesiana Website is in place, it will also be accessible from this page.
[Top of this page] [Nationaal Herbarium Nederland] [NHN-Leiden]
[Top of this page] [Nationaal Herbarium Nederland] [NHN-Leiden]
Last modified on vrijdag, september 15, 2006 by P. Hovenkamp