Botanical dispersal pathways into Malesia: The Philippines – Southeast Asian connection

The Malay Archipelago, also known as Malesia, the triangle Malay Peninsula–Philippines–New Guinea, encompassing Indonesia, is tectonically one of the world’s most active areas with an intricate history of amalgama- tion of terranes. For plants it means that ancestral species must have dispersed to the area, which presently holds about 70 % of endemic species with an estimated total of up to 45 000 species. One of the possible dispersal routes mentioned runs from the SE Asian mainland via the Philippines. This was considered likely for montane species and for species that prefer a yearly dry monsoon period. However, comparisons of numbers of species, dated phylogenies with a clade on the mainland and another in the Philippines and Species Distribution Modelling all show that most likely only few species dispersed via this northern route. Chance long distance dispersal, especially for montane species, is always possible, but for the dry monsoon preferring species, for which the Philippine connection was mentioned once as a pathway, the savannah corridor during glacial periods, running from the Malay Peninsula to Java, was likely a far more important dispersal route.

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