Eastern Asiatic Region

Eastern Asiatic Region
A forest in Sichuan
Bamboo forest in Lushan, China

The Eastern Asiatic Region (also known as Oriasiaticum, Sino-Japanese Region, East Asian Region, Temperate Eastern Region) is the richest floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom and situated in temperate East Asia. It has been recognized as a natural floristic area since 1872 August Grisebach's volume Die Vegetation der Erde and later delineated by such geobotanists as Ludwig Diels, Adolf Engler (as Temperate Eastern region), Ronald Good (as Sino-Japanese Region) and Armen Takhtajan.

The Eastern Asiatic Region is dominated by very old lineages of gymnosperms and woody plant families and is thought to be the cradle of the Holarctic flora. Moreover, this floristic region wasn't significantly glaciated in the Pleistocene, and many relict Tertiary genera (such as Metasequoia glyptostroboides, ancestors of which were once common throughout the Northern Hemisphere up to subpolar latitudes) found refuge here.

Contents

Endemic flora

The Eastern Asiatic Region endemic flora is characterized by:

Endemic families

Endemic genera

Approximately eight other families are shared with tropical Southeast Asia (Nageiaceae, Rhodoleiaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, Pentaphyllaceae, Duabangaceae, Mastixiaceae, Pentaphragmataceae, Lowiaceae). As has long been noted, many relict genera occurring in East Asia, such as Liriodendron and Hamamelis, are shared with temperate North America, especially the North American Atlantic Region.

Adjacent Regions

The Eastern Asiatic Region is bordered by the Circumboreal Region of the Holarctic Kingdom in the north, the Irano-Turanian Region of the same kingdom in the west and Indian, Indochinese and Malesian Regions of the Paleotropical Kingdom in the south. It comprises the southern part of the Russian Far East, southern part of Sakhalin, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, relatively humid eastern part of the mainland China from Manchuria and the seashore to Eastern Himalaya and Kali Gandaki Valley in Nepal, including Sikkim, northern Burma and northernmost Vietnam (parts of Tonkin).

Subdivisions

According to a version of Takhtajan's classification, the Eastern Asiatic Region is further subdivided into 13 provinces; however, the number and delimitation of the southern provinces is disputed and varies even across Takhtajan's work.

  • Manchurian Province
two endemic genera (Microbiota, Omphalothrix), many endemic species (including Abies holophylla, Picea koraiensis, Ulmus macrocarpa, Crataegus pinnatifida, Vitis amurensis)
  • Sakhalin-Hokkaido Province
one endemic genus (Miyakea), some endemic species (including Abies sachalinensis, Fragaria yezoensis)
  • Japan-Korean Province
  • Ryukyu Province
  • Volcanic-Bonin Province
  • Taiwanese Province
  • Northern Chinese Province
  • Central Chinese Province
  • Southeastern Chinese Province
  • Sikang-Yuennan Province
  • Northern Burmese Province
  • Eastern Himalayan Province
  • Khasi-Manipur Province

See also

  • Index: Flora of East Asia

References

Cheng-yih Wu. Delineation and Unique Features of the Sino-Japanese Floristic Region. David E. Boufford and Hideaki Ohba (eds.), University of Tokyo Bulletin 37: Sino-Japanese Flora — Its Characteristics and Diversification. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1998.



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • eastern Africa — ▪ region, Africa Introduction       part of sub Saharan Africa comprising two traditionally recognized regions: East Africa, made up of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda; and the Horn of Africa, made up of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.… …   Universalium

  • Eastern Berber languages — Infobox Language family name=Eastern Berber region=Libya, Egypt familycolor=Afro Asiatic fam1=Afro Asiatic fam2=Berber child1=Siwi child2=Awjila Sokna groupThe Eastern Berber languages belong to the Afro Asiatic family and are spoken in Libya and …   Wikipedia

  • North American Atlantic Region — The Blue Ridge, heartland of the region …   Wikipedia

  • Asiatic Cheetah — Taxobox name = Asiatic CheetahMSW3 Wozencraft | pages = 533] status = CR trend = down status system = iucn3.1 status ref = IUCN2006|assessors=Cat Specialist Group|year=1996|id=220|title=Acinonyx jubatus ventaticus|downloaded=11 September 2006… …   Wikipedia

  • eastern Africa, history of — Introduction       history of the area from ancient times through the 20th century. East Africa The coast until 1856       The earliest written accounts of the East African coast occur in the Periplus Maris Erythraei apparently written by a Greek …   Universalium

  • Eastern Orthodoxy — the faith, practice, membership, and government of the Eastern Orthodox Church. * * * officially Orthodox Catholic Church One of the three major branches of Christianity. Its adherents live mostly in Greece, Russia, the Balkans, Ukraine, and the… …   Universalium

  • Eastern Biu-Mandara A.1 languages — Infobox Language family name=Eastern Biu Mandara A.1 region=Nigeria familycolor=Afro Asiatic fam1=Afro Asiatic fam2=Chadic fam3=Biu Mandara fam4=Biu Mandara A fam5=Biu Mandara A.1 child1=Boga child2=Ga anda child3=HwanaThe Eastern Biu Mandara A.1 …   Wikipedia

  • Eastern Orthodox Church — Orthodox Catholic Church and Orthodox Christian Church redirect here. For other uses of the term, see Orthodox (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Oriental Orthodox Churches. See also: Eastern Christianity and Orthodoxy by country The… …   Wikipedia

  • Circumboreal Region — Floristic regions in Europe according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch …   Wikipedia

  • Proto-Afro-Asiatic — is the hypothetical proto language from which modern Afro Asiatic languages are descended.Ilya Yabonovich and other linguists, in examining the differences between the various members of the Afro Asiatic family have realised that all of the old… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”