Diversity and distribution patterns in the flora of Mount Kinabalu

Abstract

The 700km2 Mount Kinabalu (4101m), N Borneo, has one of the richest floras in the world, including c4000 species of vascular plants. A high percentage of the species have extremely restricted distributions, frequently associated with ultramafic outcrops. Ideal conditions for a diverse flora and rapid evolutionary rates result from a vast range of climatic conditions, numerous geologically recent habitats on a diversity of substrates, regularly recurring El Nino droughts that may drive catastrophic selection, precipitous topography resulting in strong reproductive isolation over short distances, and small population size of many species which may be susceptible to genetic drift. Frequent speciation events in the recent past may have contributed significantly to the great diversity of the flora. Dispersal of plants pre-adapted to montane environments also may have contributed to the high floristic diversity. A few species may be relictual. -from Authors