ON THE PHYTOGEOGRAPHIC BIODIVERSITY OF WESTERN MELANESIAN MOSSES

Abstract

  The affinities of the moss floras of Australia, Borneo, Bhutan, Ceylon, Hawaii, Korea, the Lesser Sunda Islands, New Zealand, Peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, the Society Islands, Taiwan and Western Melanesia were studied by Kroeber's percentage of similarity. Three main areas of affinity can be noticed: (1) Australia and New Zealand, (2) New Guinea and neighbouring Melanesia, and (3) northern areas represented by Bhutan and Korea. The disjunct floras of Hawaii and the Society Islands do not show a close relation to the other areas. This can be explained by different distributional elements of the bryoflora, such as (1) The element of pantropical species or widely distributed southeast Asiatic to Pacific species occurring in most of the recorded areas, (2) SW Asiatic species of possibly Laurasian origin, (3) Originally Gondwanalandic taxa that spread in early times by Sunda fragments and went through speciation in Melanesia, (4) A southern Gondwanalandic element present mainly in New Zealand and Australia, (5) High elevation taxa disjunct from the boreal to temperate areas of northern hemisphere, and (6) Endemic species.