Biodiv Sci ›› 2016, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (8): 948-956.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2016002

• Bioinventories • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Status of vascular plant species on Hainan Island

Yukai Chen1,2, Xiaobo Yang1,*(), Donghai Li1, Wenxing Long1   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory of Protection and Development Utilization of Tropical Crop Germplasm Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou 570228
    2 Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Tropical Plant and Animal Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158
  • Received:2016-01-03 Accepted:2016-05-25 Online:2016-08-20 Published:2016-09-02
  • Contact: Yang Xiaobo

Abstract:

Maintaining plant diversity on tropical islands is a priority for biodiversity conservation. Hainan Island, located in the northern tropics, is the second largest island in China with high plant diversity. Several updated plant lists of local flora have been published after decades of field investigations. In this paper, we investigated the plant diversity on Hainan Island by conducting extensive field surveys and a literature review. Results indicated that, as of December 2015, there were 6,036 vascular plants recorded on Hainan Island with voucher specimens or practical materials. Among these species, 1,220 species were revised as synonymously, 4,579 species were wild (including 483 endemic and 512 rare and endangered species), 163 were naturalized species (including 57 invasive species) and 1,294 species were cultivated species. Since the publication of Flora Hainanica in 1964-1977, a large proportion of newly recorded species were mainly wild or introduced species, and accounted for 35.9% and 75.9% of their corresponding totals, respectively.

http://jtp.cnki.net/bilingual/detail/html/SWDY201608011

Key words: flora, rare and endangered plants, endemic plants, naturalized plants, invasive plants, introduced plants