Additions to the mosses of Palawan Island, with notes on the phytogeography of the Palawan moss flora

Additions to the mosses of Palawan Island, with notes on the phytogeography of the Palawan moss flora

Thirty-one species in 22 families of mosses are reported as new records for the island of Palawan, the Philippines. Two of these, Acroporium downii (Dixon) Broth. and Trichosteleum pseudomammosum M. Fleisch., are also reported here as new to the Philippine moss flora. A re-examination of the floristic affinity of the moss flora of Palawan revealed that: 1) it has high similarity and close floristic affinity with Mindoro rather than Luzon; 2) the islands of Mindoro, Palawan, and Mindanao have close floristic affinities with Sulawesi and the Nusa Tenggara Islands, roughly corresponding to the area of Wallacea; 3) Luzon Island, as a whole, has a closer floristic affinity with Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo; and 4) inferences on the distribution of Clastobryum caudatum (Sande Lac.) M. Fleisch. and Meteorium crispifolium Herzog provide additional information on the role of Palawan as a refugium for a past, xeric flora in the Philippines.