The role of palaeofloras and Bornean aroids in the investigation of phytochores

Wong, Sin Yeng (2011) The role of palaeofloras and Bornean aroids in the investigation of phytochores. Research Bulletin : Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, 2. pp. 12-13. ISSN 1511-0788

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Abstract

It was Edred J.H. Corner who first drew attention to the partial commonality of the tree floras of the E and NW coast of Peninsular Malaysia and that of N Borneo, and postulated this to be a result of these areas sharing remnants of a once extensive expanse of lowland humid forest and river deltas centred on what is now the South China Sea (Corner, 1960). Corner coined the name the „Riau Pocket‟ for this, now fragmented, phytochore. Remarkably, for more than 40 years no-one picked up on Corner‟s landmark but much-overlooked paper. The intimation that interest was reviving in the exciting prospect of being able to study extant fragments of a “lost” biosphere joining the archipelagic and mainland elements of the Indomalaya Ecozone was a paper by Wong Khoon Meng (Wong, 1998) dealing with patterns plant endemism and rarity in Malaysia. Somewhat later still Peter Shaw Ashton (Ashton, 2005) mapped the known extent of the extant Riau Pocket fragments, and linked them to the known phytochores for Borneo. Between these papers, and subsequently, there have been a number of general and not a few specific studies drawing further reference to the importance of palaeobiogeography and modern distributions of taxa in SE Asia (van Welzen et al. 2003, Roos, 2004, van Welzen & Slik 2009, Raes et al. 2009), although none except Atkins et al. (2001), attempted phylogeographical analysis, and none has specifically analysed the veracity of the putative Riau Pocket phytochore fragments.

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