Botanical Knowledge of Magnoliaceae in Papua New Guinea

摘要

Papua New Guinea is in the eastern part of the Island of New Guinea, Manus, New Britain, and New Ireland. The western part of the Island is known as Indonesian Papua, a province of Indonesia. The Island is reported to hold approximately 20,000 vascular plants. The complicated topographic nature of the land formation makes it difficult to botanically explore all the areas and document the flora. The botanical explorations in some parts of Papua New Guinea have occur during the last 100 years. Therefore, there is a high possibility of finding undescribed species. Although the flora of Papua New Guinea is very diverse, with at least 20,000 vascular plants, the family Magnoliaceae is only represented by the genera Elmerrillia and Magnolia. The last taxonomic account on the family in Papua New Guinea 1978 by Croft, 1978 described the two species as (Elmerrillia papuana and Talauma oreandum). These were later changed by Nooteboom 1985 to E. tsiampacca and Magnolia candollii. Elmerrillia is endemic to Indonesia and New Guinea and is known only by the species E. tsiampacca. It is further subdivided to two subspecies species (subsp. tsiampacca and subsp. mollis). Subspecies tsiampacca is known by two varieties (var. tsiampacca and van glaberima). It is one of the major commercial species in terms of timber production, highly regarded for constructions, veneer and plywood. Magnolia consists of about 120 species worldwide, but only one species (M. candollii) occurring naturally in Papua New Guinea. This paper discusses our knowledge of the family in Papua New Guinea by highlighting information on individual species morphology, ecology, distribution and their conservation status.