In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its... more In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its limited and relic-like distribution within the Lalashan Nature Reserve in northern Taiwan. It forms nearly pure stands extending about 18 km along the ridges at elevations of 1,300 to 2,000m. Three stands, representing northern, middle, and southern ranges of the beech forests, were sampled using thirty-two 10 x 10 m quadrats. They were surveyed for physiognomy, structure and floristic composition. About 172 species of vascular plants were encountered. Species richness per plot averaged 39. Diversity of trees with a DBH ＞ 1.0cm was calculated as Shannon-Wiener index (2.34) and Simpson index (0.12). The density was 5700 stems with an average basal area of 56 m^2 per ha. The beech contributed more than 76% of the total basal area. Other important species were Rhododendron formosana and Enkianthus purulatus in the subcanopy layer. In the understory, Yushanian niitakayamensis (dwarf bamboo) usually formed extremely dense layers. Sum of square agglomerative cluster analysis led to the recognition of 3 vegetation types. Reciprocal averaging ordination of the plots suggested a vegetational continuum in response to topographic gradient. Size-class distribution of the beech indicated a unimodal pattern with underrepresentation exhibited in the smallest size-class; however, variation among sampling locations might be present. It also suggested that Taiwan beech was likely to be shade-intolerant. In terms of physiognomy and generic composition, closest affinity appeared to be with the Fagus lurida forest of Mt. Fangchingshan in southeastern China.
A data storage and retrieval system has been developed for assembling and manipulating specimen i... more A data storage and retrieval system has been developed for assembling and manipulating specimen information concerning Taiwanese grass species. It was designed for use on an affordable and widespread microcomputer, and is most suitable for small colleges and universities with small herbaria or for personal collections. Steps involved in the creation of item fields, character sets, file structure, and their updating are briefly described. The query system was so designed that it can be used to retrieve records with desired attributes and from them to give results in a variety of forms, including specimen labels, distribution map, and other relevant information.
Remusatia vivipara is an epiphyte of possibly ornamentally and medically important plant, but flo... more Remusatia vivipara is an epiphyte of possibly ornamentally and medically important plant, but flowering is rare in fields. The present experiments were conducted to study the influences of different concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) and tuber sizes on the flower initiation, inflorescence characteristics and vegetative growth in R. vivipara. GA3 concentration as low as 25 mg L-1 could induce flowering. The results of a binary logistic regression analysis indicated that the flowering was significantly associated both with GA3 concentration and tuber size. However, comparing with the non-GA3 treated tubers, different GA3 concentrations did not significantly affect flowering. The result also showed no significant effect induced by GA3 treatments on the number of days to flower. In contrast, the Wald statistic revealed that both tuber size (2.51-3.00 cm) and tuber size (3.01-3.50 cm) made more significant contributions to the prediction of flowering. Tuber diameters above 3.01 cm with 100 mg L-1 GA3 treatment could bring all plants to flower. Results of canonical discriminant analysis and ANOVA tests indicated that there were no differences for all inflorescence characters (inflorescence length, male zone length, sterile zone length and female zone length) among different concentrations of GA3 tested. On the contrary, significant differences among the tuber diameter classes for all inflorescence characteristics measured were markedly evident. Generally, sizes of almost all inflorescence characteristics increased with increasing tuber sizes. When considering vegetative characters, significant differences in the fresh and dry weights of bulbil stolon were found between treated and untreated tubers. Although there was a trend of increase in weights with increasing GA3 concentrations, but this was not statistically significant. Our results for R. vivipara showed the induction of flowering by GA3 only influence of flower initiation, but no effects on inflorescence and vegetation characteristics. The present study also revealed that large tuber size made more significant contributions to the prediction of flowering, and the magnitude of inflorescence characteristics.
108 TAIWANIA Vol. 45, No. 1 Study area The Nanjenshan Reserve, centered approximately at 22°3&... more 108 TAIWANIA Vol. 45, No. 1 Study area The Nanjenshan Reserve, centered approximately at 22°3' N and 120°5 Г E, is part of the Kcnting National Park. It is situated at the cast side of a mountain range near the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the Hengchun peninsula of ...
A newly recorded species, Myriophyllum dicoccum F. Muell., and the most commonly cultivated and n... more A newly recorded species, Myriophyllum dicoccum F. Muell., and the most commonly cultivated and nearly naturalized species, M. aquaticum(vell.) Verdc., are described. A key to four species of this genus in Taiwan is given.
This file contains the annual flower production of 44 species from the Fushan subtropical rain fo... more This file contains the annual flower production of 44 species from the Fushan subtropical rain forest. The flower production of a species is defined as the number of traps receiving its flower within a phenological year. There are ten data points for each species. This data contains four columns: year, species, production, and postfrost. The column 'production' is the annual flower production, while 'postfrost' is a logical value (TRUE or FALSE) used to identify whether the data is before (FLASE) or after (TRUE) the spring frost event in March 2005
Flower and seed production of plants can be greatly influenced by both natural climatic oscillati... more Flower and seed production of plants can be greatly influenced by both natural climatic oscillations and local weather extremes. However, owing to the rarity of long-term monitoring studies conducted at a sufficient temporal scale to capture climatic oscillations and the unpredictability of extreme weather events, evidence that demonstrates how these two external forcings act in concert to drive plant reproduction remains scarce. In addition, considerable variation in species’ phenological responses to the external climatic forcings was often observed. Phylogenetic relationships may mediate this inter-specific variation, but previous studies yielded inconsistent results when testing this hypothesis. We monitored the flower and seed production in a subtropical rainforest, Fushan, Taiwan (24°45'N, 121°35'E), for over ten years (since September 2002). In March 2005, a record low temperature (-1.3°C) occurred at Fushan and caused great frost damage to plants. We used weekly phenological records and long-term meteorological data to assess the effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme weather event on plant reproductive output. We show that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices, which integrated local climatic variables at Fushan over several months, were strongly associated with flower and seed production. The 2005 spring frost also had long-lasting effects on the flower and seed production of several species. In particular, we detected phylogenetic signals in the relationships between phenological responses of flowering production and several climatic variables (maximum temperature, irradiance, and ENSO34 index). By contrast, the relationships between seed production and climatic variables, as well as phenological responses to the frost event, did not exhibit a phylogenetic signal. Synthesis: Our findings add to the growing evidence that together the natural climatic oscillation (ENSO) and the extreme weather event (frost) determined the temporal variation in flower and seed production. In addition, phylogenetically closely related species resembled each other in their flowering responses to abiotic variation in this subtropical rainforest. Improved understanding of these abiotic and biotic interactions may help predicting population- and community-level phenological responses under future climate changes
Symbiotic nitrogen (N)‐fixing trees can provide large quantities of new N to ecosystems, but only... more Symbiotic nitrogen (N)‐fixing trees can provide large quantities of new N to ecosystems, but only if they are sufficiently abundant. The overall abundance and latitudinal abundance distributions of N‐fixing trees are well characterised in the Americas, but less well outside the Americas. Here, we characterised the abundance of N‐fixing trees in a network of forest plots spanning five continents, ~5,000 tree species and ~4 million trees. The majority of the plots (86%) were in America or Asia. In addition, we examined whether the observed pattern of abundance of N‐fixing trees was correlated with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Outside the tropics, N‐fixing trees were consistently rare in the forest plots we examined. Within the tropics, N‐fixing trees were abundant in American but not Asian forest plots (~7% versus ~1% of basal area and stems). This disparity was not explained by mean annual temperature or precipitation. Our finding of low N‐fixing tree abundance in the Asian tropics casts some doubt on recent high estimates of N fixation rates in this region, which do not account for disparities in N‐fixing tree abundance between the Asian and American tropics. Synthesis. Inputs of nitrogen to forests depend on symbiotic nitrogen fixation, which is constrained by the abundance of N‐fixing trees. By analysing a large dataset of ~4 million trees, we found that N‐fixing trees were consistently rare in the Asian tropics as well as across higher latitudes in Asia, America and Europe. The rarity of N‐fixing trees in the Asian tropics compared with the American tropics might stem from lower intrinsic N limitation in Asian tropical forests, although direct support for any mechanism is lacking. The paucity of N‐fixing trees throughout Asian forests suggests that N inputs to the Asian tropics might be lower than previously thought
Established in 1929, the Herbarium of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the Na... more Established in 1929, the Herbarium of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the National Taiwan University (NTU) is now over seventy years old, with a collection of over 260,000 specimens. Among its collection, specimens of Taiwan's indigenous plants are the most numerous, representing at least 95% of species of vascular plants in Taiwan. In order to better utilize and manage the items in the NTU Herbarium (TAI), most of the specimens in the collection and the labels of each specimen have all undergone digitization, and have been incorporated into the Herbarium's website for the sake of sustainable preservation and for purposes of academic research, as well as both specialized and general education. The digitization work is funded by Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP).
In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its... more In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its limited and relic-like distribution within the Lalashan Nature Reserve in northern Taiwan. It forms nearly pure stands extending about 18 km along the ridges at elevations of 1,300 to 2,000m. Three stands, representing northern, middle, and southern ranges of the beech forests, were sampled using thirty-two 10 x 10 m quadrats. They were surveyed for physiognomy, structure and floristic composition. About 172 species of vascular plants were encountered. Species richness per plot averaged 39. Diversity of trees with a DBH ＞ 1.0cm was calculated as Shannon-Wiener index (2.34) and Simpson index (0.12). The density was 5700 stems with an average basal area of 56 m^2 per ha. The beech contributed more than 76% of the total basal area. Other important species were Rhododendron formosana and Enkianthus purulatus in the subcanopy layer. In the understory, Yushanian niitakayamensis (dwarf bamboo)...
Eight species of Euphorbia L. sensu stricto from Taiwan are treated in this revisional study incl... more Eight species of Euphorbia L. sensu stricto from Taiwan are treated in this revisional study including two taxa with nomenclatural corrections (E. cyathophora Murr. and E. heterophylla L.). E. calonesiaca Croizat, Galarhoeus formaosanus (Hayata) Hurusawa var. hayatai Hurusawa and E. taiwaniana Ying are treated as synonyms of E. formosana Hayata, E. shouanensis Keng and E. heterophylla L., respectively. Discussions of taxonomic important characters, a key to all taxa along with their descriptions, illustrations, geographical distributions, specimens examined and taxonomic notes are presented.
This study focused on a remnant of lowland rain forest in the Nanjenshan Reserve of southern Taiw... more This study focused on a remnant of lowland rain forest in the Nanjenshan Reserve of southern Taiwan. During 1989-1994, two long-term plots of 2.1 and 3 ha were set up at Lanjenchi (hill) and Nanjenshan (valley) sites, and forest composition, structure and species diversity were compared between the two plots. In the Lanjenchi plot, the most important families (sum of basal areas of all species within that family) were Fagaceae, Theaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Illiciaceae, Lauraceae and Myrtaceae, while in the Nanjenshan plot, the most important families were Euphorbiaceae, following by Moraceae, Meliaceae, Lauraceae, Aquifoilaceae, Urticaceae and Lythraceae, which bore some similarities to the tropical rain forests both in physiognomy and structure. Both TWINSPAN classification and DCA ordination separated the windward forest from the leeward forest stands in the Lanjenchi plot, but no such pattern could be recognized for the Nanjenshan plot. In the Lanjenchi plot, both species composition...
The objectives of this study are to revisit altitudinal distribution patterns for plant species i... more The objectives of this study are to revisit altitudinal distribution patterns for plant species in the main sections (where the ridges are higher than 2,000 m above sea level) of the Central Mountain Range (CMR) in Taiwan and identify the most influential environmental factor resulting in these patterns. Three east-west oriented sampling belts at regular latitudinal intervals were laid out in the main sections of the CMR. Each belt was further divided into two regions according to the aspect (the east-facing and westfacing aspects). The data of species altitudinal distribution for the six regions were extracted from a dataset of a national vegetation mapping project. On the north and central sampling belts species altitudinal distribution is markedly lower on the east-facing aspect than on the west-facing aspect, whereas on the south belt species altitudinal distribution between the two aspects does not differ significantly. There is an increasing tendency of species altitudinal distribution with the decrease of latitude on the east-facing aspect of the CMR. In contrast, the tendency is barely noticeable on the west-facing aspect. The distinct distribution patterns between the two aspects can be better explained by climatic heterogeneity created by the interaction between the winter northeast monsoon and the topographic effect of the CMR than by the heat retention mechanism of Massenerhebung. The previously-proposed distribution pattern that claimed that species altitudinal distribution descends gradually towards the north and south ends of Taiwan should be revised. On the east-facing aspect of the main sections of the CMR, species altitudinal distribution rises as latitude decreases. On the west-facing aspect, such tendency is not evident.
Theendemic'Taiwanesewildtea'representsaninvaluablenaturalresourcefortheteaindustry. The taxon is ... more Theendemic'Taiwanesewildtea'representsaninvaluablenaturalresourcefortheteaindustry. The taxon is distributed in the central, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan with populations shrinking dramaticallyinthepastdecade.Taxonomically,ithaslongbeentreatedasalowertaxoneitherunderCamellia sinensisvar.sinensisorC. sinensisvar.assamica.Nevertheless,ourrecentmorphologicalstudyindicatedthat thistaxonisdifferentfromtheothertwotaxa.Inthisreport,weprovidemolecularevidenceforreassessingits systematic status. Samples representing all the wild populations that are available in Taiwan were sequenced along with samples from the other two taxa at the introns 12-16 and 23 of the RPB2 gene of nuclear DNA. Phylogenetic analysis recovered a monophyletic group of 'Taiwanese wild tea' well separated from the other taxa.Inaddition,geneticdistancesandpreviouspheneticanalysesallsupportedtheidentityofthisspecies.A new combination of C. formosensis (Masamune et Suzuki) M. H. Su, C. F. Hsieh et C. H. Tsou is proposed herein.
In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its... more In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its limited and relic-like distribution within the Lalashan Nature Reserve in northern Taiwan. It forms nearly pure stands extending about 18 km along the ridges at elevations of 1,300 to 2,000m. Three stands, representing northern, middle, and southern ranges of the beech forests, were sampled using thirty-two 10 x 10 m quadrats. They were surveyed for physiognomy, structure and floristic composition. About 172 species of vascular plants were encountered. Species richness per plot averaged 39. Diversity of trees with a DBH ＞ 1.0cm was calculated as Shannon-Wiener index (2.34) and Simpson index (0.12). The density was 5700 stems with an average basal area of 56 m^2 per ha. The beech contributed more than 76% of the total basal area. Other important species were Rhododendron formosana and Enkianthus purulatus in the subcanopy layer. In the understory, Yushanian niitakayamensis (dwarf bamboo) usually formed extremely dense layers. Sum of square agglomerative cluster analysis led to the recognition of 3 vegetation types. Reciprocal averaging ordination of the plots suggested a vegetational continuum in response to topographic gradient. Size-class distribution of the beech indicated a unimodal pattern with underrepresentation exhibited in the smallest size-class; however, variation among sampling locations might be present. It also suggested that Taiwan beech was likely to be shade-intolerant. In terms of physiognomy and generic composition, closest affinity appeared to be with the Fagus lurida forest of Mt. Fangchingshan in southeastern China.
A data storage and retrieval system has been developed for assembling and manipulating specimen i... more A data storage and retrieval system has been developed for assembling and manipulating specimen information concerning Taiwanese grass species. It was designed for use on an affordable and widespread microcomputer, and is most suitable for small colleges and universities with small herbaria or for personal collections. Steps involved in the creation of item fields, character sets, file structure, and their updating are briefly described. The query system was so designed that it can be used to retrieve records with desired attributes and from them to give results in a variety of forms, including specimen labels, distribution map, and other relevant information.
Remusatia vivipara is an epiphyte of possibly ornamentally and medically important plant, but flo... more Remusatia vivipara is an epiphyte of possibly ornamentally and medically important plant, but flowering is rare in fields. The present experiments were conducted to study the influences of different concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) and tuber sizes on the flower initiation, inflorescence characteristics and vegetative growth in R. vivipara. GA3 concentration as low as 25 mg L-1 could induce flowering. The results of a binary logistic regression analysis indicated that the flowering was significantly associated both with GA3 concentration and tuber size. However, comparing with the non-GA3 treated tubers, different GA3 concentrations did not significantly affect flowering. The result also showed no significant effect induced by GA3 treatments on the number of days to flower. In contrast, the Wald statistic revealed that both tuber size (2.51-3.00 cm) and tuber size (3.01-3.50 cm) made more significant contributions to the prediction of flowering. Tuber diameters above 3.01 cm with 100 mg L-1 GA3 treatment could bring all plants to flower. Results of canonical discriminant analysis and ANOVA tests indicated that there were no differences for all inflorescence characters (inflorescence length, male zone length, sterile zone length and female zone length) among different concentrations of GA3 tested. On the contrary, significant differences among the tuber diameter classes for all inflorescence characteristics measured were markedly evident. Generally, sizes of almost all inflorescence characteristics increased with increasing tuber sizes. When considering vegetative characters, significant differences in the fresh and dry weights of bulbil stolon were found between treated and untreated tubers. Although there was a trend of increase in weights with increasing GA3 concentrations, but this was not statistically significant. Our results for R. vivipara showed the induction of flowering by GA3 only influence of flower initiation, but no effects on inflorescence and vegetation characteristics. The present study also revealed that large tuber size made more significant contributions to the prediction of flowering, and the magnitude of inflorescence characteristics.
108 TAIWANIA Vol. 45, No. 1 Study area The Nanjenshan Reserve, centered approximately at 22°3&... more 108 TAIWANIA Vol. 45, No. 1 Study area The Nanjenshan Reserve, centered approximately at 22°3' N and 120°5 Г E, is part of the Kcnting National Park. It is situated at the cast side of a mountain range near the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the Hengchun peninsula of ...
A newly recorded species, Myriophyllum dicoccum F. Muell., and the most commonly cultivated and n... more A newly recorded species, Myriophyllum dicoccum F. Muell., and the most commonly cultivated and nearly naturalized species, M. aquaticum(vell.) Verdc., are described. A key to four species of this genus in Taiwan is given.
This file contains the annual flower production of 44 species from the Fushan subtropical rain fo... more This file contains the annual flower production of 44 species from the Fushan subtropical rain forest. The flower production of a species is defined as the number of traps receiving its flower within a phenological year. There are ten data points for each species. This data contains four columns: year, species, production, and postfrost. The column 'production' is the annual flower production, while 'postfrost' is a logical value (TRUE or FALSE) used to identify whether the data is before (FLASE) or after (TRUE) the spring frost event in March 2005
Flower and seed production of plants can be greatly influenced by both natural climatic oscillati... more Flower and seed production of plants can be greatly influenced by both natural climatic oscillations and local weather extremes. However, owing to the rarity of long-term monitoring studies conducted at a sufficient temporal scale to capture climatic oscillations and the unpredictability of extreme weather events, evidence that demonstrates how these two external forcings act in concert to drive plant reproduction remains scarce. In addition, considerable variation in species’ phenological responses to the external climatic forcings was often observed. Phylogenetic relationships may mediate this inter-specific variation, but previous studies yielded inconsistent results when testing this hypothesis. We monitored the flower and seed production in a subtropical rainforest, Fushan, Taiwan (24°45'N, 121°35'E), for over ten years (since September 2002). In March 2005, a record low temperature (-1.3°C) occurred at Fushan and caused great frost damage to plants. We used weekly phenological records and long-term meteorological data to assess the effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme weather event on plant reproductive output. We show that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices, which integrated local climatic variables at Fushan over several months, were strongly associated with flower and seed production. The 2005 spring frost also had long-lasting effects on the flower and seed production of several species. In particular, we detected phylogenetic signals in the relationships between phenological responses of flowering production and several climatic variables (maximum temperature, irradiance, and ENSO34 index). By contrast, the relationships between seed production and climatic variables, as well as phenological responses to the frost event, did not exhibit a phylogenetic signal. Synthesis: Our findings add to the growing evidence that together the natural climatic oscillation (ENSO) and the extreme weather event (frost) determined the temporal variation in flower and seed production. In addition, phylogenetically closely related species resembled each other in their flowering responses to abiotic variation in this subtropical rainforest. Improved understanding of these abiotic and biotic interactions may help predicting population- and community-level phenological responses under future climate changes
Symbiotic nitrogen (N)‐fixing trees can provide large quantities of new N to ecosystems, but only... more Symbiotic nitrogen (N)‐fixing trees can provide large quantities of new N to ecosystems, but only if they are sufficiently abundant. The overall abundance and latitudinal abundance distributions of N‐fixing trees are well characterised in the Americas, but less well outside the Americas. Here, we characterised the abundance of N‐fixing trees in a network of forest plots spanning five continents, ~5,000 tree species and ~4 million trees. The majority of the plots (86%) were in America or Asia. In addition, we examined whether the observed pattern of abundance of N‐fixing trees was correlated with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Outside the tropics, N‐fixing trees were consistently rare in the forest plots we examined. Within the tropics, N‐fixing trees were abundant in American but not Asian forest plots (~7% versus ~1% of basal area and stems). This disparity was not explained by mean annual temperature or precipitation. Our finding of low N‐fixing tree abundance in the Asian tropics casts some doubt on recent high estimates of N fixation rates in this region, which do not account for disparities in N‐fixing tree abundance between the Asian and American tropics. Synthesis. Inputs of nitrogen to forests depend on symbiotic nitrogen fixation, which is constrained by the abundance of N‐fixing trees. By analysing a large dataset of ~4 million trees, we found that N‐fixing trees were consistently rare in the Asian tropics as well as across higher latitudes in Asia, America and Europe. The rarity of N‐fixing trees in the Asian tropics compared with the American tropics might stem from lower intrinsic N limitation in Asian tropical forests, although direct support for any mechanism is lacking. The paucity of N‐fixing trees throughout Asian forests suggests that N inputs to the Asian tropics might be lower than previously thought
Established in 1929, the Herbarium of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the Na... more Established in 1929, the Herbarium of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the National Taiwan University (NTU) is now over seventy years old, with a collection of over 260,000 specimens. Among its collection, specimens of Taiwan's indigenous plants are the most numerous, representing at least 95% of species of vascular plants in Taiwan. In order to better utilize and manage the items in the NTU Herbarium (TAI), most of the specimens in the collection and the labels of each specimen have all undergone digitization, and have been incorporated into the Herbarium's website for the sake of sustainable preservation and for purposes of academic research, as well as both specialized and general education. The digitization work is funded by Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP).
In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its... more In Taiwan, Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata (Taiwan beech) is of particular interest because of its limited and relic-like distribution within the Lalashan Nature Reserve in northern Taiwan. It forms nearly pure stands extending about 18 km along the ridges at elevations of 1,300 to 2,000m. Three stands, representing northern, middle, and southern ranges of the beech forests, were sampled using thirty-two 10 x 10 m quadrats. They were surveyed for physiognomy, structure and floristic composition. About 172 species of vascular plants were encountered. Species richness per plot averaged 39. Diversity of trees with a DBH ＞ 1.0cm was calculated as Shannon-Wiener index (2.34) and Simpson index (0.12). The density was 5700 stems with an average basal area of 56 m^2 per ha. The beech contributed more than 76% of the total basal area. Other important species were Rhododendron formosana and Enkianthus purulatus in the subcanopy layer. In the understory, Yushanian niitakayamensis (dwarf bamboo)...
Eight species of Euphorbia L. sensu stricto from Taiwan are treated in this revisional study incl... more Eight species of Euphorbia L. sensu stricto from Taiwan are treated in this revisional study including two taxa with nomenclatural corrections (E. cyathophora Murr. and E. heterophylla L.). E. calonesiaca Croizat, Galarhoeus formaosanus (Hayata) Hurusawa var. hayatai Hurusawa and E. taiwaniana Ying are treated as synonyms of E. formosana Hayata, E. shouanensis Keng and E. heterophylla L., respectively. Discussions of taxonomic important characters, a key to all taxa along with their descriptions, illustrations, geographical distributions, specimens examined and taxonomic notes are presented.
This study focused on a remnant of lowland rain forest in the Nanjenshan Reserve of southern Taiw... more This study focused on a remnant of lowland rain forest in the Nanjenshan Reserve of southern Taiwan. During 1989-1994, two long-term plots of 2.1 and 3 ha were set up at Lanjenchi (hill) and Nanjenshan (valley) sites, and forest composition, structure and species diversity were compared between the two plots. In the Lanjenchi plot, the most important families (sum of basal areas of all species within that family) were Fagaceae, Theaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Illiciaceae, Lauraceae and Myrtaceae, while in the Nanjenshan plot, the most important families were Euphorbiaceae, following by Moraceae, Meliaceae, Lauraceae, Aquifoilaceae, Urticaceae and Lythraceae, which bore some similarities to the tropical rain forests both in physiognomy and structure. Both TWINSPAN classification and DCA ordination separated the windward forest from the leeward forest stands in the Lanjenchi plot, but no such pattern could be recognized for the Nanjenshan plot. In the Lanjenchi plot, both species composition...
The objectives of this study are to revisit altitudinal distribution patterns for plant species i... more The objectives of this study are to revisit altitudinal distribution patterns for plant species in the main sections (where the ridges are higher than 2,000 m above sea level) of the Central Mountain Range (CMR) in Taiwan and identify the most influential environmental factor resulting in these patterns. Three east-west oriented sampling belts at regular latitudinal intervals were laid out in the main sections of the CMR. Each belt was further divided into two regions according to the aspect (the east-facing and westfacing aspects). The data of species altitudinal distribution for the six regions were extracted from a dataset of a national vegetation mapping project. On the north and central sampling belts species altitudinal distribution is markedly lower on the east-facing aspect than on the west-facing aspect, whereas on the south belt species altitudinal distribution between the two aspects does not differ significantly. There is an increasing tendency of species altitudinal distribution with the decrease of latitude on the east-facing aspect of the CMR. In contrast, the tendency is barely noticeable on the west-facing aspect. The distinct distribution patterns between the two aspects can be better explained by climatic heterogeneity created by the interaction between the winter northeast monsoon and the topographic effect of the CMR than by the heat retention mechanism of Massenerhebung. The previously-proposed distribution pattern that claimed that species altitudinal distribution descends gradually towards the north and south ends of Taiwan should be revised. On the east-facing aspect of the main sections of the CMR, species altitudinal distribution rises as latitude decreases. On the west-facing aspect, such tendency is not evident.
Theendemic'Taiwanesewildtea'representsaninvaluablenaturalresourcefortheteaindustry. The taxon is ... more Theendemic'Taiwanesewildtea'representsaninvaluablenaturalresourcefortheteaindustry. The taxon is distributed in the central, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan with populations shrinking dramaticallyinthepastdecade.Taxonomically,ithaslongbeentreatedasalowertaxoneitherunderCamellia sinensisvar.sinensisorC. sinensisvar.assamica.Nevertheless,ourrecentmorphologicalstudyindicatedthat thistaxonisdifferentfromtheothertwotaxa.Inthisreport,weprovidemolecularevidenceforreassessingits systematic status. Samples representing all the wild populations that are available in Taiwan were sequenced along with samples from the other two taxa at the introns 12-16 and 23 of the RPB2 gene of nuclear DNA. Phylogenetic analysis recovered a monophyletic group of 'Taiwanese wild tea' well separated from the other taxa.Inaddition,geneticdistancesandpreviouspheneticanalysesallsupportedtheidentityofthisspecies.A new combination of C. formosensis (Masamune et Suzuki) M. H. Su, C. F. Hsieh et C. H. Tsou is proposed herein.
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