Flora Malesiana and the Flora of Nepal: floristic links and the potential for collaboration

The degree of overlap between the Malesian and Nepalese floras was analyzed by comparison of the distributions of twenty plant families revised for Flora Malesiana. Despite their geographic separation in some plant families there is significant overlap between the two areas at both the generic and specific levels. In seven of these families at least 40 % of Nepalese species were also found in Malesia. In some families with temperate distributions up to 29 % of Malesian species and all Malesian genera are also found in Nepal. It is suggested that a coordinated approach to the production of accounts of such families would improve the rate of production of accounts and would greatly facilitate knowledge transfer and help to build scientific networks and expertise in Nepal.