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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
The diversity of island endemic floras always reminds us of the importance of these enclaves in understanding the origins and evolution of life on our planet. Islands represent roughly 5% of the Earth’s land surface, but their plant endemics have unique characteristics which have arisen (mainly) through isolation, and make up about one-quarter of all extant terrestrial plant species. Island floras are thus not only distinctive, but also strikingly prolific.
Despite centuries of botanical exploration, constant new findings remind us how much we still have to learn about plant biodiversity on islands. In some archipelagos, palaeo-botanical data convincingly show that the vegetation makeup may have been radically different barely a few thousand years ago, new insular species are frequently discovered, and some others that were feared extinct reappear.
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