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Tongan Tropical Moist Forests
The Tongan tropical moist forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion that includes the Tonga archipelago and Niue. Geography The ecoregion includes the Tonga archipelago, a group of 170 islands that extends 800 km north to south between 15º to 23ºS latitude and 173º to 177º W longitude, and comprise the nation of Tonga. It also includes Niue, which lies 400 km east of Tonga at 19º S latitude and 169º W longitude. The Tonga archipelago lies at the boundary of the Pacific and the Australian tectonic plates, and the islands were created by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Australian Plate. The islands on the eastern side of the chain are mostly made up of uplifted coraline rocks lying atop blocks of oceanic or continental crust. Some of the larger eastern islands are Foa, Lifuka, Vavaʻu, 'Eua, and Tongatapu. Several of the islands on the western side of the chain are of stratovolcanos, including 'Ata, Tofua, Kao, Late, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oceanian Realm
The Oceanian realm is one of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biogeographic realms, and is unique in not including any continental land mass. It has the smallest land area of any of the WWF realms. This realm includes the islands of the Pacific Ocean in Micronesia, the Fijian Islands, the Hawaiian islands, and Polynesia (with the exception of New Zealand). New Zealand, Australia, and most of Melanesia including New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia are included within the Australasian realm. Conversely, New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand are included in the Oceanian realm in the classification scheme developed by Miklos Udvardy in 1975.Udvardy, M. D. F. (1975). ''A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world''. IUCN Occasional Paper no. 18. Morges, Switzerland: IUCN.Udvardy, Miklos D. F. (1975) ''World Biogeographical Provinces'' (Map). The CoEvolution Quarterly, Sausalito, Californialink The Juan Fernández Islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late (island)
Late Island is an uninhabited volcanic island southwest of Vavaʻu in the kingdom of Tonga. Geography The small, 6-km-wide circular island of Late, lying along the Tofua volcanic arc about 55 km WSW of the island of Vavau, contains a 400-m-wide, 150-m-deep summit crater with an ephemeral lake. The largely submerged basaltic andesite to andesitic volcano rises 1500 m from the sea floor, with its conical summit reaching 540 m above sea level. Cinder cones are found north of the summit crater, west and north of a semicircular plateau 100–150 m below the summit, and on the NW coast. A graben-like structure on the NE flank contains two large pit craters, the lower of which is partially filled by a saltwater lake. Only two eruptions have occurred in historical time, both from NE-flank craters, which produced explosive activity and possible lava flows in 1790 and 1854. History It was discovered by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa on 27 February 1781, on board ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pittosporum Arborescens
''Pittosporum'' ( or ) is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. ''Citriobatus'' can be included here, but might be a distinct (though closely related) genus. They are commonly known as pittosporums or, more ambiguously, cheesewoods. The species are trees and shrubs growing to 2–30 m tall. The leaf, leaves are spirally arranged or whorled, simple, with an entire or waved (rarely lobed) margin. The flowers are produced singly or in umbels or panicle, corymbs, each flower with five sepals and five petals; they are often sweetly scented. The fruit is a woody seed capsule (botany), capsule, which bursts on ripening to release the numerous seeds. The seeds are coated with a sticky resinous substance. The genus is named after their sticky seeds, from the Greek language, Greek meaning "pitch-seed". Pittosporum e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pisonia Grandis
''Pisonia grandis'', the grand devil's-claws, is a species of flowering tree in the ''Bougainvillea'' family, Nyctaginaceae. Description The tree has broad, thin leaves, smooth bark and bears clusters of green sweet-smelling flowers that mature into sticky barbed seeds. Dispersal occurs when seeds stick to bird feathers. Vegetative reproduction frequently results when fallen branches sprout or basal shoots develop into new trees. Distribution ''Pisonia'' trees are distributed throughout the coral cays of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The species often dominates mature coral cay vegetation, growing in dense, thick strands up to tall. ''Pisonia'' wood is rather weak and soft and decays rapidly when the trees fall. ''Pisonia'' forests are a common nesting site for seabirds. One of the best remaining ''Pisonia'' forests can be found on Palmyra Atoll. St. Pierre Island, Farquhar Group, was once covered by a ''Pisonia grandis'' forest. This forest disappeared after guano minin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Litsea Mellifera
''Litsea'' is a genus of evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes a large number of accepted species in tropical and subtropical areas of North America and Asia. Characteristics They are typically dioecious trees or shrubs. The leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen depending on species, and aromatic. They have leaves alternate or opposite or in whorls. The inconspicuous flowers range from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, to yellowish. The inflorescences are pseudo-umbels, flat-topped or rounded flower clusters, each pseudo-umbel with an involucre of four or six decussate bracts. Species Currently accepted species include: *'' Litsea aban-gibotii'' Ng *''Litsea accedens'' (Blume) Boerl. *'' Litsea accedentoides'' Koord. & Valeton *''Litsea acrantha'' Ridl. *'' Litsea acutifolia'' (Liou Ho) Kosterm. *'' Litsea acutivena'' Hayata *'' Litsea aestivalis'' (L.) Fernald *'' Litsea akoensis'' Hayata *''Litsea alba'' K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elattostachys Falcata
''Elattostachys'' is a genus of about 21 species of trees known to science, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae. They grow naturally in the New Guinea, the Moluccas, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Timor, Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Palau ( Caroline Islands) and the Philippines. The known centre of diversity of New Guinea has nine known species recognised by science . In Australia, they grow naturally through the northern half of the eastern coastal zone, northwards from the Newcastle region in New South Wales through eastern Queensland to the northernmost point of Australia Cape York Peninsula. One of them ''E. xylocarpa'' has a common name of white tamarind, while another ''E. nervosa'' has a common name of beetroot tree. A few members of the Australian Sapindaceae are called tamarinds, although they have no close relation to the true tamarind, which is a member of the bean family. Conservation At the global scale, several ''Elattostach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calophyllum Neo-ebudicum
''Calophyllum neoebudicum'' is a species of tree in the Calophyllaceae family. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no .... References neoebudicum Flora of the Southwestern Pacific Trees of Malesia Trees of Papuasia Trees of the Pacific Least concern plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Calophyllaceae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alphitonia Zizyphoides
''Alphitonia'' is a genus of arborescent flowering plants comprising about 20 species, constituting part of the buckthorn family ( Rhamnaceae). They occur in tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Oceania and Polynesia. These are large trees or shrubs. In Australia, they are often called "ash trees" or "sarsaparilla trees". This is rather misleading however; among the flowering plants, ''Alphitonia'' is not closely related to the true ash trees ('' Fraxinus'' of the asterids), and barely at all to the monocot sarsaparilla vines (''Smilax''). The name is derived from Greek ''álphiton'' (, "barley-meal"), from the mealy quality of their fruits' mesocarps.. Another interpretation is that "baked barley meal" alludes to the mealy red covering around the hard cells in the fruit.Alexander Floyd, ''Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia'', Inkata Press 2008, page 322 The lanceolate coriaceous leaves are alternate, about 12 cm long. The margins are smooth. Venation is p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhus Taitensis
''Rhus taitensis'' is a small tree or shrub in the sumac family of plants. It is found from tropical Asia, to Australia and many islands of the Pacific ocean. The chemical tetrahydroxysqualene from dried and ground parts of ''R. taitensis'' has ''in vitro'' activity against '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' and the plant has been used in folk medicine locally to treat diarrhea and hearing loss. Distribution The native range of ''R. taitensis'' includes Asian countries, such as Indonesia (in the Sulawesi, Irian Jaya, eastern Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and the Moluccas), Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines; western and south central Pacific island locales, such as the Society Islands of French Polynesia (the type specimens were collected from the island of Tahiti by Carlo Luigi Giuseppe Bertero and J. A. Moerenhout during an expedition described in Moerenhout's book entitled ''Voyages aux îles du Grand Océan''), Niue, Palau and others within Micronesia, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diospyros
''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, dark timber, are commonly known as ebony trees, while others are valued for their fruit and known as persimmon trees. Some are useful as ornamentals and many are of local ecological importance. Species of this genus are generally dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Taxonomy and etymology The generic name ''Diospyros'' comes from a Latin name for the Caucasian persimmon ('' D. lotus''), derived from the Greek διόσπυρος : dióspyros, from ''diós'' () and ''pyrós'' (). The Greek name literally means "Zeus's wheat" but more generally intends "divine food" or "divine fruit". Muddled translations sometimes give rise to curious and inappropriate interpretations such as " God's pear" and " Jove's fire". The genus is a large one a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can grow. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean. Two different, well-cited models, the subsidence and antecedent karst models, have been used to explain the development of atolls.Droxler, A.W. and Jorry, S.J., 2021. ''The Origin of Modern Atolls: Challenging Darwin's Deeply Ingrained Theory.'' ''Annual Review of Marine Science'', 13, pp.537-573. According to Charles Darwin's ''subsidence model'', the formation of an atoll is explained by the subsidence of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed. Over geologic time, the volcanic island becomes extinct and eroded as it subsides completely beneath the surface of the ocean. As the volcanic island subsides, the coral fringing reef becomes a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafahi
Tafahi is a small () island in the north of the Tonga archipelago, in fact closer to Savaii (Samoa) than to the main islands of Tonga. It is only north-northeast away from Niuatoputapu, and fishermen commute in small outboard motorboats almost daily between the two. The island has a population of 14 (in 2021). Other names for Tafahi are Cocos Eylant (coconut island) or Boscawen island. Geography Tafahi is a volcanic island and has the typical cone shape of a stratovolcano. The mountain is called Piu-o-Tafahi (fanpalm of Tafahi) and is high. (The island, , is smaller than Niuatoputapu, but higher). The soil is extremely suited for growing kava and vanilla, whose exports to the rest of Tonga and beyond is the main occupation of the population. The harbour (merely an opening in the fringing reef, only passable by small boats) is at the northwest of the island. A steep staircase leads up to the village, with about 69 residents at the census of 2001, located on a plateau on the nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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