The Flora of Peninsular Malaysia is an initiative of the Malaysian government as part of its commitment to biodiversity conservation and to the training of a new generation of taxonomists. It is being produced in two series, Series I for the ferns and lycophytes and Series II for the seed plants. These two volumes mark the first in each of these series. Detailed nomenclature, type information and descriptions are provided for all taxa, and keys are given for genera and species where necessary. Taxonomic notes and information on distribution, ecology, uses and vernacular names are also provided. What is particularly useful in the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia is that all species are mapped and provided with an IUCN Conservation Assessment. Many species are illustrated with high quality drawings and photographs.
The last published fern flora of Peninsular Malaysia was that of Holttum in 1968 (and this covered ferns but not fern allies). The first volume of the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia, Series I: Ferns and Lycophytes is the beginning of a comprehensive update of that work. It starts with a conspectus by Barbara Parris of orders, families and genera, to reflect the changes in classification of ferns and fern ‘allies’ that have emerged from recent phylogenies based on morphological and molecular data. The editors broadly follow the treatment of Smith et al. (Reference Smith, Pryer, Schuettpelz, Korall, Schneider and Wolf2006) in placing Equisetaceae and Psilotaceae with the ferns, rather than with lycophytes, but have modified the treatment for ferns; for example, Pteridaceae is divided into five monophyletic families, Parkeriaceae, Adiantaceae, Cryptogrammaceae, Sinopteridaceae and Pteridaceae; Polypodiaceae is divided into three families, Loxogrammaceae, Polypodiaceae and Grammitidaceae. Justification for these changes is provided.
A further chapter by Barbara Parris and Ruth Kiew covers the history of the collecting of ferns and lycophytes in Peninsular Malaysia, and a chapter on species assessment and conservation has been contributed by Lilian Chua of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia.
Volume 1 of Series I covers nine families, 21 genera and 100 species, and includes Selaginellaceae, Psilotaceae, Equisetaceae, Osmundaceae, Matoniaceae, Schizaceae, Cibotiaceae, Loxogrammaceae and Grammitidaceae.
The last complete account of the seed plants was Ridley’s Flora of the Malay Peninsula which was published in five volumes between 1922 and 1925. The first volume of the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia, Series II: Seed Plants includes information on the family concepts adopted and notes that the task is to document a total of approximately 7834 species in 1564 genera and 220 families. A table of these families, with numbers of genera and species, is given. The family concepts largely follow APG II although the editors have chosen to maintain a few, for reasons they set out, that are now mostly sunk into synonymy.
Further chapters are provided on the vegetation of Peninsular Malaysia, and the conservation chapter from the fern and lycophyte volume is reprinted almost verbatim here.
Volume 1 of Series II covers 26 families, 35 genera and 81 species and includes Ancistrocladaceae, Araucariaceae, Balanophoraceae, Bonnetiaceae, Casuarinaceae, Chloranthaceae, Clethraceae, Cruciferae, Ctenolophonaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, Datiscaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Illiciaceae, Myricaceae, Nelumbonaceae, Pedaliaceae, Pentaphylacaceae, Pittosporaceae, Podocarpaceae, Portulacaceae, Schisandraceae, Symplocaceae, Tetrameristaceae, Torricelliaceae, Trigoniaceae and Turneraceae. Most of these are very small with four or fewer species in Peninsular Malaysia, and several with only one species. The larger accounts include the Balanophoraceae, Podocarpaceae and Symplocaceae.
The authors and editors are to be congratulated on two beautiful, scholarly and very valuable works.
