Vegetation on the Northeastern Summit zone of Mt. Halcon, Mindoro Island, Philippines
1998
Mandia, E.H.
A floristic survey was conducted in the northeastern summit zone of Mt. Halcon (2,582 m asl), the highest peak in Mindoro Island, Philippines. By summit zone is meant the area lying above the limit of continuous closed-canopy forest. Mt. Halcon summit zone extends between plus or minus 1,950 to 2,582 m asl. It supports a low growing vegetation interrupted by patches of forest and tall shrubberies. One hundred fifty-five terrestrial plants, both vascular and nonvascular belonging to 78 families and 116 genera were recorded. Eighteen species represent new records for Mt. Halcon. Eight species are endemic and on records are represented only by one or two collections. At least one species belonging to the genus Elaeocarpus is undescribed. Family Ericaceae is most represented with 12 species. In general, the zone shows greater floristic alliance with Malesia, West Malexia in particular. Asiatic representatives, however, outnumbered Malesian ones at the generic level. This supports the hitherto believed origin of Mindoro from south mainland China. Characteristic Australian-derived plants also occur on the summit zone whose development is supported by the acidic, nutrient-poor soils. The summit flora fits well with the tropical alpine environment of the Malesian mountains as indicated by the presence of alpine plants growing in cushion or as geophytes. Seven plant community types recognized based on structure and floristic composition were presented. The spatial distribution of the plant community types was found to be largely determined by altitude, soil depth and soil temperature as shown by both indirect and direct gradient analyses. As a whole, the plant community types show close affinity with Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo, both structurally and floristically
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