Flora of French Polynesia

Among the foods produced are mango, papayas, avocados, grapefruit, pineapples, oranges, coconuts, bananas and to a lesser extent taro and yam.

[5] Some genera of vascular plants endemic to French Polynesia are: Pelagodoxa, Apetahia, Lebronnecia, Haroldiella, Plakothira, Pacifigeron, Metatrophis and Oparanthus.

Other endemic flora includes Pritchardia pericularum, Serianthes rurutensis, Macaranga raivavaeensis, Nicotiana fatuhivensis, Acalypha raivavensis, Lepinia taitensis, Erythrina tahitensis, Chamaesyce atoto, Pittosporum raivavaeense, Sophora mangarevaensis and Cyrtandra nukuhivensis.

He concluded that the Indochinese peninsula (South Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia) was the origin of the vegetation in the islands of Papua, Solomon, New Zealand and finally the rest of Polynesia.

In addition, going east shows a decline in biodiversity: while Malaysia has 23,500 plant species cataloged,[8] Papua has 5,000, New Caledonia has 3,250 and French Polynesia only 1,000.

[9] Some species such as Casuarina equisetifolia or Cocos nucifera were able to cross the ocean because their seeds could float in the water and were washed ashore to take root.

The British naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied the explorer James Cook in 1769 on his trip aboard HMS Endeavour through the South Pacific Ocean, and is considered the first European to study the Tahitian vegetation.

[citation needed] In 1789 there is the well-known mutiny of HMS Bounty, a ship commanded by Major William Bligh that was destined to Tahiti to study the flora of the island, especially the bread tree.

The island of Mo'orea, 16 km from Tahiti, has an important area of coral reefs declared by UNESCO as a Ramsar site.

Of particular note is the biosphere reserve of the Fakarava atolls and the Ramsar area of the Mo'orea Lagoon (5,000 hectares of protected land).