Ethnobotany of Pohnpei: Plants, People, and Island Culture

Chapter Nine. Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Pohnpei

chapter nine Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Pohnpei Due to the island’s steep and rugged mountainous terrain ,Pohnpeihasnotbeenthoroughlyexploredorsurveyed biologically. Additional botanical exploration of these areas will certainly yield new species and records. Habitat modification to grow crops, including extensive cultivation of sakau (Piper methysticum), has resulted in the destruction of much lowland native vegetation and threatens the vegetation even at higher elevations. Other than Glassman’s (1952) flora, nocomprehensiveaccountoftheplantsofPohnpeiexists.Glassman ’s work has become outdated because numerous nomenclatural changes have taken place, revisionary work has changed taxonomic concepts, and many new cultivated and naturalized species have been introduced since 1952. Methodology This checklist of vascular plants of Pohnpei State (including the outer atolls) is based largely on the foundation of published literature sources, including The Flora of Ponape by S. F. Glassman (1952) and a companion paper with new records for the islands (Glassman 1953). Publications by F. R. Fosberg and his collaborators include the Flora of Micronesia series (parts 1–5), which was never completed, and Systematic Studies of Micronesian Plants by Fosberg and Sachet (1975a,b, 1977, 1980a,b; Fosbergetal .1993).Checklistsofthemajorvascularplantgroupsin MicronesiawerepublishedbyFosbergandhiscollaboratorsand include the following: A Geographical Checklist of the MicronesianDicotyledonae (Fosbergetal.1979);AGeographicalChecklist of the Micronesian Monocotyledonae (Fosberg et al. 1987); and A Geographical Checklist of the Micronesian Pteridophyta and Gymnospermae (Fosberg et al. 1982). The records from the Fosberg et al. checklists are based on specimens housed primarily at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum herbarium (BISH) in Honolulu and David H. Lorence Timothy Flynn checklist of vascular plants of pohnpei 525 the U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution (US). Specimen data have been entered into an unpublished database compiled by Dr. Warren L. Wagner (Smithsonian Institution, Department of Botany) and Dr. Derral R. Herbst (Bishop Museum, Department of Botany), which will be made available ontheSmithsonianInstitution’sbotanyWebsitein thenearfuture.Thecurrent checklist incorporates important records from this database, referred to herein as Wagner and Herbst (unpublished manuscript). Thischecklistalsoincorporatesherbariumspecimens,photographicrecords, and personal observations compiled by David H. Lorence and Timothy Flynn duringtripstoPohnpeiin1996,1997,2006,and2007.ThefirstsetofthesespecimensishousedattheNationalTropicalBotanicalGarden ’sherbarium(PTBG), with additional sets deposited at the BISH, The New York Botanical Garden (NY), and US herbaria. A number of historical records are included—primarily introductions of agricultural, economic, and ornamental plants to the Pohnpei Agricultural Station at Kolonia during the German, Japanese, and American (Trust Territory) periods. The site is also known as the Japanese Agricultural Station, and the historical 3.5-story art deco concrete building constructed by the Japanese in 1927 to house their tropical industrial research institute and meteorological station, though deteriorating, is still intact. A full list of over four hundred plants introduced since the 1830s via this agricultural station is cited in Appendix 1 of Ragone et al. (2001). These mostly cultivatedspeciesareincludedinthepresentchecklist,althoughnotallwereobservedbytheauthorsorcolleaguesonPohnpei .Inmostcases,herbariumvouchershavenotbeenmadeofthesespecies ,althoughmanyhavebeenphotographed to verify their identity. We have also incorporated numerous specimens and records collected by Dr. MichaelJ.Balick(TheNewYorkBotanicalGarden)andhiscollaboratorsaspart of the Plants and People of Pohnpei Project, which has generated thousands of new collections. These collections have been identified and the names verified by the authors. Reference sets have been deposited in herbaria at a number of institutions, including NY, PTBG, and the College of Micronesia (COM) in Palikir , Pohnpei. ArrangementofangiospermandgymnospermfamiliesfollowstheAngiosperm PhylogenyWebsite(http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/).The ferns have been arranged according to the recent classification system proposed by Smith et al. (2006). Plant names and authors of plant names used in this checklist follow usage on the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) Web site (http://www.ipni.org/index.html). Native versus nonnative status of the species is indicated by the following abbreviations after each plant name: C = cultivated; E = endemic; I = indigenous; N = naturalized; INV = invasive. The abbreviation INV has been added to spe- 526 ethnobotany of pohnpei cies that are known to be invasive or potentially invasive. A question mark indicates that the status is questionable. In cases of dual status (e.g., C, N), the most usual or common condition is utilized for purposes of Table 9.1. Citation of synonyms and misapplied names is primarily restricted to those names listed in Glassman’s flora (1952) and is indicated in italics followed by “[In Glassman]” or “sensu Glassman.” Floristic Diversity Basedonthisprovisionalchecklist,approximately975vascularplantspeciesand infraspecieshave been recorded fromPohnpei (seeTable 9.1). Ofthese,approximately 425 taxa are native (indigenous and endemic). Among the native flora, the rate of endemism is 14.6 percent. Introduced plants significantly outnumber the native species...