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The ''flora'' consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with a tropical climate and around 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a nation with the second largest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and the native species. This is due to the geography of Indonesia, located between two continents. The archipelago consists of a variety of regions from the tropical rain forests of the northern lowlands and the seasonal forests of the southern lowlands through the hill and mountain vegetation, to subalpine shrub vegetation. Having the second longest shoreline in the world, Indonesia also has many regions of swamps and coastal vegetation. Combined together, these all give rise to a huge vegetational biodiversity. There are about 28,000 species of flowering plants in Indonesia, consisting 2500 different kinds of orchids, 6000 traditional medicinal plants used as Jamu., 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of ''Dipterocarpus'', including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood. Indonesia is also home to some unusual species such as carnivorous plants. One exceptional species is known as ''Rafflesia arnoldi'', named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr. Arnold, who discovered the flower in the depths of Bengkulu, southwest Sumatra. This parasitic plant has a large flower, does not produce leaves and grow on a certain liana on the rain forest floor. Another unusual plant is ''Amorphophallus titanum'' from Sumatra. Numerous species of insect trapping pitcher plants (''Nepenthes'' spp.) can also be found in Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. == Origin of Indonesian flora == The origin of flora in Indonesia is heavily affected by geographical and geological events in Asian continent and Australasian continent (now Australia). The present New Guinea island was connected with the present Australia continent, forming a supercontinent called the southern supercontinent Gondwana. This supercontinent began to break up 140 million years ago, and the New Guinea region (previously known as Sahul) moved towards the equator. As a result, animals from New Guinea travelled to Australian continent and vice versa, creating many different species living in different ecosystems. This activities still occur until the two regions separated completely. Asian continent influences, on the other hand, is 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 Laurasia supercontinent split completely, forming Laurentia (now America) and Eurasia continents. Although this occurred, the mainland of the Eurasia continent, including China, was not separated completely from the Indonesian archipelago. As a result, plants from the Eurasia mainland could propagate to the archipelago, and, under a different ecosystems, new forms of species were formed In the nineteenth century, Alfred Russel Wallace proposed the idea of the Wallace Line, which is a line that divides Indonesian archipelago into two regions, the Asian biogeographical region (Sundaland) and the Australasia biogeographical Region (Wallacea). The line runs through the Indonesian Archipelago, between Borneo and Sulawesi (Celebes); and between Bali and Lombok. The Indonesian archipelago, home of the Spice Islands, has been known since ancient time as the source of spices, such as clove, nutmeg, and pepper. The Maluku Islands were, until the late eighteenth century, the only source of economically significant spices. In the colonial time, clove and nutmeg were the most valuable commodities after gold and silver for the most Europeans. During the Dutch colonial era in Indonesia, the Dutch also created many plantages (plantations) of coffee, tea and sugar cane, mostly in Java. Along with the history of Indonesia the sailors from India, China and Europe have brought also new kinds of plant species to this archipelago. Plant species, which are not native to this archipelago, such as tea, coffee and rubber tree are then established. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Flora of Indonesia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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