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THE TROPICAL FLORA Henk John Ghillean Prance,^ Beentje,^ T. and Robert Johns^ REMAINS Dransfieldy^ UNDERCOLLECTED^ Abstract Recent fieldwork of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in many parts of the tropics reveals the extent to which they are undercollected and poorly studied. Recent studies of palms in Madagascar, Cameroon, Lao P.D.R., and Brunei still Darussalam have produced many novelties, for example, in Madagascar, 3 new genera and 85 new species. Recent examples from Atlantic coastal Brazil, central Amazonia, and New Guinea are given. Even in apparently well collected areas such as the Ducke Forest Reserve near Manaus, Brazil, and in Brunei where detailed studies of small areas are The made, many novelties are found. recommended that more such intensive studies of restricted areas are made. It is new species are being described, an averag*^ of 2350 over the past nine years, and the rate of additions to rate of that Flora Neotropica suggest that the total number of angiosperms is currently being underestimated and that there are in between 300,000 and 320,000 species. In order develop conservation and sustainable use of tropical ecosystems, fact to essential that we continue to intensify the rate of collection before is too late. is it it LaoRD.R., Key words: Amazonia, biodiversity, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, conservation, field inventory, New Madagascar, Guinea, palms, tropics. The purpose paper show, with ex- mainly by the establishment of cacao plantations of this to is amples from a few places, that the tropical flora and sugar cane fields as well as by other types Many shown severely undercollected and that many of farming. studies have the high endemism For example, Mori new species of angiosperms continue to be dis- level of in this area. covered and described every year. The destruc- et al. (1981) showed from a sample of 127 trees monographs described Flora Neotropica that tion of tropical habitats both in areas of rainforest in 53.5% were endemic the Mata Atlantica, and savannas continues an alarming rate to in at some and before we have completed the inventory There is no doubt that of these locally de- this now However, of what exists. As a result of the incomplete in- scribed species are extinct. recent remaining fragments eco- we seem be underestimating the collecting in the of this ventory, to total many new We system continues turn up species number of seed plants in the world. have to Two world where and also interesting disjunct distributions. identified a few areas of the further examples of this are Brodriguesia santosii R. S. collecting urgent and destruction of vegetation is Cowan and new genus Harleyodendron, with the continuing alarming rates from a variety of at is Cowan hope encourage single species H. unifoliatum R. S. causes. our that this will its It is An (Cowan, 1979, 1981). Interesting range ex- and greater efforts in both collection of material Anthodis- tension the recent collection oi The is first habitat conservation before too late. ar- is it Mata (Car>ocaraceae) the Atlantica, a ge- cus in which Royal Bo- eas described are places in the known nus was previously only from the that Gardens, Kew, involved, and they serve tanic is Amazonia, and Choco Guianas, western the in many examples what occurring as of also in is Colombia. Anthodiscus amazonicus Gleason was many and ecosystems, other places in different & found in the forests of Bahia (Prance Mori, both and temperate. tropical Amazonian 1980) and added yet another disjunct many Lima remnants by to the cited (1953). If the The Mata Atlantica of Bj^azh many of the Mata Atlantica are yielding so nov- 94% We we commence with this area because its de- elties, what have lost in the of the region The now documented and only has been deforested? conservation of the struction so well that is 6% about of the Atlantic coastal rainforest of n mnants, now declared a World Heritage site, is Brazil remains intact. has been devastated vital for the future reconstruction of this habitat. It \^V thank the many local institutions and collaborators who have assisted in the fieldwork in the areas discussed ' here. CTJ' thanks the Instiluto Na<:ional de Pcsquisas da Amazona, Michael Hopkins, and all the Reserva Ducke team for their help with the project from which data is cited. TW9 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey 3AB, United Kingdom. ^ Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 87: 67-71. 2000 68 Annals the of Garden Missouri Botanical TaMe New I. species found in the KM) ktn- Heserva Like many tropical countries with a half-finished Adolpho Ducke, Manaus, Florestal Hra/il the coarse of in fl^^j.^ ^]^^ families that have been treated in such preparing a flora. floras are incomplete. The Palmae were written in 1945 Madagascar for the Flore de des Comores et No. of by Jumelle and Perrier de Bathie, acknowledged la Family species experts on palm taxonomy. Tlie volume described >auraceae 11 I and keyed 115 species, but descriptions were often Sapotaceae 10 based on scrappy specimens and therefore the keys An nonaceae 6 failed to work for most taxa. Consequinitly, palm A raceae 6 information for Madagascar was confused, and this Arecaceae 3 many for a family which ethnobotanical uses in Lccythida<'eae 3 Passifloraceae 3 were recorded: palms are used for food, construc- Chr) bobalanaceae 2 tion, basketry, medicine, and many otiier items in KuIh laceae 2 Ma<lagascar. Ollu*r families 9 When Uhl and Dransfield (1987) published their motmmental Genera Palmarum, main prob- their Total 55 lems with generic delimitation and tribal relation- were Madagascar. sliips in Tlierefore Dransfield embarked on a of field trips to the island, j TiiK Reserva Florestal Adolfo Ducke, but soon started discovering so many new species Ama/onas, and Brazil additional mysteries he decided diat a special Madagascar project was needed. With funding from This 100-km- forest reserve near Manaus cen- in McDonalds Restaurants (UK) was the project set Amazonia was believed be one tral to of the best- and Henk up, Beentje working started for in it collected areas in Amazonia. In 1993, we set out 1991. lie lived in Madagascar for a year and a half, to prepare a Flora and a field guide to the reserve traveling all over die east coast in search of palms. and The initiated intensive collecting. preliminary The results of this fieldwork plus further visits INPA list from the herbarium database contained by Dransfield showed how much we did not know: 825 species (Prance, and we assumed we 1990), so 3 !»ew genera and 85 new sp<HMes were discovered were working with a flora of about 1000 species. d ^ innc\ /ri^,*, ii & .• ^\ .l (Dranstfii cid Beentje, 1995). These u- iciludi edi the T.. , .. ^ ve years we now h1 ave 2175 . later species be 1^1 to worlds palm smallest {Dypsis tenuissima Beentje, included in tlie Flora (M. Hopkins, pers. conun.). on ^ i ,i r u- u\ r u- l ^^^ ^ 1^^^ than a foot* high) i * ali so 80-feet. -high canopy l)ut , , TI.,hi.s i. ncludes over 50 new speci. es (, see Tab, l, e ( A u 1). pali ms such as iV/oani•oalra, LremurophoieriLX• , anda Ur- _,, Thi.s work shows the value ofr t1he i• ntensi. ve stud1y of anla ravnka Beentje, and an amazing aquatic palm. a small area of tropical forest and the value of flo- The Ravenea latter, musicalis Beentje, has seeds The rulas. recently published florula of the forest a a n t »i A* bump' 11.111 "^^t. noat* on the wat*er. small i splits tihe , T T^ around • 1 reserves Iquitos, Peiu, published by the fleshy fruit wall, and releases the seed, which then Missouri Botanical Garden, another good exam- is The sinks. seed has already developed a half-inch- ple of a local flora that has helped to improve the long hooked seed leaf within the strategy fniit (a stocks of the botanical inventoiy of an area (Vas- i , aualogous to scvcral, mangroves)^, andi i ihoo~ik' this . ^r.r^-T^ t quez lMijar rtmez, 1997). In ordier to compliete t,he i. n- ? , i • • catches on projections on the streambi edi, enabling vent,ory olr t^he tropi. cs, we need1 many more of^ t,hese n "i1^ seedili-ing to start rooting. rTr.h, e worryi. ng t.hi. ng . is J ^ .1 , • ,- , I- r 11 detailed Horistic studies small areas. of T tihat tihi• s palm onli y seems to grow i. n a su. igl, e ri. ver, M which 450 have been Many ..w, ^" trees counted. of the ...».* MADAGASCAR newliy dii- scovered palms have veiy restricted distri- Madagascar is another place that is notable both bulion, and coupled to the threats to the vegetation endemism for its high level of of plants and animals where they occur, this empliasizes two things; the and for the rapid destruction of the natural vege- need to conserve, and the need inventory such to tation. It is also badly undercollected despite the dwindling habitat; s Kew recent efforts of both the Missouri and gar- Yet another new genus, Satranala, was known The made dens. latter has a recent study of the from a few tens of trees in a single reserve; on a w palms, hich as an example of what remains recent trip, Dransfield visited a second newly dis- to be done and what can be found when specialists covered bringing the known numbers site, to the concentrate on a particular group of plants. low hundreds. Why are such palms so rare? In the — Volume Number Prance 69 87, et 1 al. 2000 Tropical Flora case o{ Satranala, there an intriguing hypothesis. near Kribi Cameroon, Terry Sunderland and in is The fruit endocarp is hard and shows strong flang- John Dransfield found extensive populations along — es, unlike any other palm endoearp apart from u the main road ol two clearly distinct, easily sepa- few taxa from N(*w Guinea, distributed by casso- rable large-diameter rattans that match the two waries. The hypothesis that Satranala was dis- nanuMl taxa. They found astonishing that two taxa is it tributed by the giant elephant bird, the roc of the so clearly distinct, could have been confused; no Thousand and One Nights, Aepyornis of science: doubt the difficulty of collecting these spiny plants \\\g a bird now extinc-t, though its subfossil eggs are still was responsible for their poor representation in her- now found on Madagascar. Therefore, because baria. Terry Sunderland conducting a critical /l^/;yorA?r.s* is taxonomy is extinct, long-distance dispersal o{ Satranala does sur\(*y of all African rattans to put their not take place any more, and its area of distribution and economic development onto a firm ])asis. dwindles. the palm project had started 10 years LAO PKOFM.ES" DEMOCRATIC RKPUBLIC If later, several of the new species would not have been Lao one gaps our represents of the largest in would have become discovered, as they extinct in knowledge of palms. Until two years ago, only three the meantime. With information from projects such palms were recorded in the literature as occurring as these, focused conservation can take place next Lao P.D.R. As a of a preliminary sur\ey in It and Without general conservation, save species. to of rattans by the Lao Forestry Department, funded the inventory being completed, these rare species by the biternational Development Research Centre go will just extinct. Bamboo and the International Network for and Rat- tan, we know that there are at least 30 species of Palms Camkuoon, Lao of P.D.R. aind Tiif: , Lao have be rattan In P.D.R,, but these yet to crit- Dahlssalam Bhi nli ically named. In order to provide a firm base for Palms are oxw. of the groups of plants diat one future rattan development in the countiy, the Lao might expect to be well known and well collected Forest Department, together witli Oxford Forestry because they are often both large conspicuous Institute and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has plants and almost all are used in some way by local started a new critical survey of Lao rattans and eco- On peoples. the other hand, non-specialist collec- logical work aimed at understanding the demogra- UK tors have tended either to avoid collecting palms or phy of Lao rattans. This is funded by the Dar- to make poor specimens because of the special dif- win Initiative. One of the first and most surprising ficultit^s of collecting such large-leaved and often results of the sur\ey is that the premier large-di- A spiny plants. brief summarj^ of three recent field ameter cane that is being harvested in huge quan- much projects involving John Dransfield shows what still titles in Lao, of it being shipped over the remains to be done in the field to get even a basic border to Vietnam, appears to be an undescribed catalogue of palms. taxon. camlmoon DARLSSALAM I3RUNKI With relatively few species (about 20 in all), the Until the start in 1988 of Kew's project to pre- when Bmnei, were continent of Africa has a poor rattan flora pare a checklist of the plants of there & compared with Southeast Asia (Uhl Dransfield, a mere 17 palms recorded for the country. Yet this 1987). The rattans that do occur are certainly con- small nation has one of the highest collecting in- spicuous and arc sometimes visible in great thick- dices for the whole of the Flora Malesiana region ets along roads In perhumid areas of equatorial Af- just the sort of statistic that added to the difficulty They remain poorly understood, largely in justifying further intensive work in the country, rica. because they have rarely been adt^quately collect- However, as in the case of the Resen a Ducke, in- ed. For some time has been assumed that in the tensive fieldwork in a relatively well collected area it By end genus Laccosperma 5 species) there was one by specialists always yields results. the of (ca. large-diameter species, Laccosperma secundiflonim the project in 1995 the palm had risen from 17 list (R Beauv.) Kuntze. Beccari had described a second to 140 different species, showing that almost half L Bomean large species, acutiflorum (Becc.) Dransfield the palm flora occurs within the well pro- J. AncistrophyUum acutiflorum Becc), based on tected forests of Brunei. During fieldwork several (as poor Subsequent workers have been unusual new taxa were unearthed, including the material. ver>^ L content to include the latter as a synonym with L. smallest species of Livlstona, exigua J. Drans- secundiflorum. During fieldwork in Decemlx^r 1997 field, the handsome Pinanga yassinii Dransfield, J. 70 Annals the of Garden Missouri Botanical number Table Data from Index on 2. Kewe/isis of taxa. Subspecific taxa Genera Speeies subspeeies and variety new new new All All All incl. incl. incl. New New New taxa combinations taxa combinations taxa combinations & & & Year new names new names new names only only only 1989 2752 1990 2653 IWl 2220 1992 1705 1993 77 88 2049 3436 508 1663 994 92 102 2126 3557 517 1398 1 1995 107 118 2413 4053 487 1400 1996 95 106 2409 4168 467 493 1 1997 79 94 2770 4342 543 1586 5- Year total 450 508 11,767 19,556 2522 7540 9- Year 2 ,097 total 1 among and, the non-palms, the extraordinary Or- Peninsula Sulawesi. However, has now been to it chidantha holttumii K. Larsen (Lowiaceae). shown occur to In Irian Jaya. The importance of collecting these basic data New Guinea New about the plants of Guinea has been empha- sized by the fact that Robert Johns has been able Of New all the places in the tropics, Guinea maps prepare of proposed conservation areas to for ^n t^rr* probably remains the least known. This certainly t^ m n is rill *^^^" Irian Jaya and rapua New Guk^.._. Thes^e^ . . . 1 r , evident from the results of recent neldwork orea- j .• maps are ibased ilargeli y on pli ant. andi veget.ation diat. a f man Kew . nized by in Jaya, where a laree number u n r u assemb1 l1 edi .i t * ^• -^ as the result oi Johns s collecting activ- , new . of the collections turn out to b1 e species. In ities. This application to systematic data is a vital show Irian Jaya, collecting density estimates that an where activity in area is not too late to con- it less than 25 specimen.s h.ave .been.collected per ^ i r .u- u- ii serve large ^tract, s ot this highly endiemi•c iniora, 100 km^, and t,here are only sliehtly under 140,000 ' whi.i- chv. - now und\er severe pressure rtrom ubot.hl mi-n- IS . , collections from a with an estimated territory flora Ing and timber extraction. of 25,000 species. The neighboring Papua New Guinea has a collection index of well under 50 How Many Go? Species to specimens per 100 km^ and known. also poorly is New Guinea offers a particularly large range of The most recent estimate of the number of spe- habitats because of its rugged topography, where cies of angiosperms in the world 250,000 and is you can go from coastal mangrove to the glacier on was originally based on a calculation by Stebbins Mount Jaya in a distance of only 110 km. The flora (1974) and confirmed or cited by many other au- New from varies tropical rainforest to high alpine. thors, including myself (Prance, 1977; Groom- Guinea many is a center of diversity for important bridge, 1992). These calculations were based on a tropical groups such as tree ferns {Cyathea and family-by-family listing of species and provided a Dicksonia), Pandanaceae (a recendy collected new good estimate based on data of the 1970s. However, am species has thick fleshy, fruity smelling bracts that I sure that this estimate must now be raised are eaten by bats, which are probably its pollina- considerably. Data in Table 2 show the descriptive and tors), Myristicaceae (for example, the recendy activity of botanists between 1989 and 1997, dur- described nutmeg species Myristica inaequalis W. ing which period 21,097 new species were de- de Wilde). scribed. Furthermore, the annual rate has not de- J. Fieldwork up many in Irian Jaya is also turning clined over the nine years involved. This backed is new 29% interesting records such as the recent collec- up by data from other sources: for example, tion of Ternstroemia magnifica Stapf ex Ridley, of the species treated in Flora Neotropica mono- which was thought to be distributed from the Malay graphs are new (Wm. Wayte Thomas, pers. comm.). Volume Number Prance 87, et 71 1 al. 2000 Tropical Flora New Leguminosae— These data show two interesting points. 1981. taxa of Caesalpinioi- Firstly, . deae from Bahia, Brazil. Britlonia 33: 9—14. there obviously a more collecting be is still lot to & Dransfield, H. Beentje. 1995. Tlie Palms of Mada- J. 2350 done, an average of about species are being if Kew gascar. Royal Botanic Gardens, and hiternalional added each and many year; secondly, despite the Palm HMSO, Society, Norwich. claims that descriptive taxonomy on the decline, Groombridge, B. (editor). 1992. Global Biodiversity: Sla- is & Chapman we same tus of the Earths Living Resources. Hall, are describing species the still at rate. London. uvljo The we fact that have added 21,097 species over jiu-.i- m^- ^ Jtumelli,e, H. & H. Perri• er de Bathie. 194^. 3•>0/v rr-amulne. ' la . , , , nine years, and also the comparison between 1970 1-186 Humbert Palmiers. Pp. in H. (editor), Flore de and 1997 data for a few selected plant families, Madagascar et des Comores. Iinprimerie Offirielle, Ta- nanarive, Madagascar. leads us to conclude that there are actually between Lima, D. de A. 1953. Notas sohre a dispersao de algunias 300,000 and 320,000 species of angiosperms. esp^cies vegetais no Brasil. Anais Soc. Biol. Pernam- buco 25-49. 11(1): Conclusion & Boom Mori, S. A., B. M. G. T. Prance. 1981. Distri- bution patterns and conservation of eastern Brazilian Data from both the undercoUected areas de- 233—245. coastal forest tree species. Brittonia 33: scribed here and the study of the rate of description Prance, G. T. 1977. Floristic inventor)' of the tropics: of new taxa clearly demonstrate that the field in- Where do we stand? Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 64: 659— 684. ventory of the angiosperms from complete. far is It 1990. Floristic composition of the forests of cen- . is necessary to continue to invest considerable re- Amazonian 112-140 tral Brazil. Pp. in A. Gentry (ed- sources into fieldwork and descriptive taxonomy New Fonr Neotropical Forests. Yale Univ. Press, itor), and be tempted them Haven. not divert the equally to all to & A. Mori. 1980. Review. Anthodiscus (Gary- new S. important and exciting techniques of molecular um Amazonia ocaraceae), genero disjunto entre a e o More systematics. detailed studies of selected small leste do Brasil. Revista Brasil. Bot, 3: 63-65. many more areas in the tropics are likely yield to Raven, H. 1988. Tropical floristies tomorrow. Taxon 37: P. new species as well as most useful demographic 549-560. data about those that are already described. The Stebbins, G. L. 1974. Flowering Plants: Evolution above Edward the Species Level. Arnold, London. more complete the inventory the better the data is & A Uhl, N. W. Dransfield. 1987. Genera Palmarum: J. we will have to provide the rationale for conserva- Classification of Palms Based on the work of H. E. and tion for the sustainable use of ecosystems. Moore L. H. Bailey Hortorium and International Jr. Palm Society, I^wrence, Kansas. Honda Vasquez Martfnez, R. 1997. de las Reser\'as Bio- Literature Cited logicas de Iquitos, Peni. Allpahuayo-Mishana Explor- Cowan, R. S. 1979. Harleyodendron, a new genus of Le- napo Camp, Explorama Lodge. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Mis- guminosae 72-78. (Swartzieae). Brittonia 31: souri Bot. Gard. 63.