Flora of Indonesia
Blessed with a tropical climate and roughly 17,000 islands, Indonesia is the nation with the second highest biodiversity in the world.
[1] The origin of flora in Indonesia is a result of geographical and geological events involving the Asian and Australasian continents.
[2] The present island of New Guinea was connected with the Australian continent, forming a supercontinent called Gondwana.
This supercontinent began to break up 140 million years ago, and the New Guinea region moved towards the equator.
Asian lineages in Indonesia are the result of the reformation of the Laurasia supercontinent, which existed after the break-up of Rodinia around 1 billion years ago.
Around 200 million years ago, the Laurasian supercontinent split completely, forming the continents of Laurentia (now the Americas) and Eurasia.
As a result, organisms from the Eurasian mainland could colonize the archipelago; and, under different environmental pressures, new species diverged.
In the colonial era, cloves and nutmeg were the most valuable commodities behind gold and silver for European colonists.
During the colonial era in Indonesia, the Dutch also created many plantations of coffee, tea and sugar cane, mostly in Java.
Lorentz National Park, located in the province of Papua, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999 by UNESCO.
Scyphostegiaceae is a plant family represented by a single species, Scyphostegia borneensis, which is endemic to Borneo.
It is home to Mentimun Jaws (Alsomitra macrocarpa) which has gliding seeds At least 117 plant genera are endemic to this biodiversity hotspot.
[9][10] On another occasion Bunga Bangkai (Titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum) was also added as puspa langka together with Rafflesia.
[11] As a highly populous, developing country that is industrializing rapidly, the need of natural resources and land is steadily increasing.
[12][13][14][15][16] According to the Indonesian department of forestry, there are currently 174 plants endemic to Indonesia listed as endangered species.
