Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

or dry zone. Montane forest is a region where there are abundant epiphytes and is dominated
by angiosperms. This area is approximately 800 m elevation. The cloud forest is one of the
moist areas of Fiji‘s forest, with high rainfall. The area is usually occupied by mosses and
other epiphytic plants. The range varies from 600-900 m elevation. The dry forest occurs in
drier zones of the country. Although once extensive, it is now occupied by agriculture,
introduced shrubs and grasslands. The coastal and wetland vegetations include mangrove
forest, coastal strand vegetation, freshwater wetland vegetation and river vegetation are high
impact sites mostly from human activities. Other categories for plant distribution are the
disturbed vegetation and the secondary forest.
3.11.1 CHECKLIST OF FLORA IN FIJI
Plant checklists are the most rudimentary form of documenting vegetative life in any area of
study. Given they are quite diverse in form and structure, one must take heed of the task at
hand as it requires one of formal botanical training or experience (to say the least) for proper
and credible accounts of the group/taxa observed or reviewed. As such, the opportunity
presented is a culmination of notable works undertaken by established botanists who
dedicated 10-20 + years of their lives studying and formally delineating the floristic
composition that collectively is unique to Fiji‘s archipelago. Thus, the executive summary is
based on the ferns and the seed plants of Fiji by Brownlie (1967) and Smith (1979-1991),
respectively. The tree species and commercial timber species are extracted from Smiths amd
Brownlie‘s floras. The checklist of other potential ornamentals for Fiji are extracted from A.
Whistler (1998) in consultation with the Curator of the South Pacific Regional Herbarium.
Please note, the acronym syn. means synonym. These are plant names that were formally
used but have become invalid because of findings from recent research.
Plant is a collective term of reference to what fundamentally is referred to as ferns and seed
plants. These two groups make up the primary classification in the plant world. Ferns are
spore reproducing plants that essentially requires an aquatic medium for any chance of
reproduction. Seed plants obviously are the non-spore bearing group that are by far more
diverse in form, structure and habitat. The reproductive versatility of seeds allows them to
opportunistically evolve and adapt to survive various environmental conditions. As such, we
have seed plants that are scientifically intriguing – e.g. cycads and those that have been
highlighted as commercially viable – timber tree species. The depth of diversity and
complexity within these groups is overwhelming and any indications of their wealth will
most definitely supersede the purpose of this document. Thus, we restrict our knowledge to
the basics or more so what it is that‘s required of a checklist – these are the scientific names
of individual species, which are always italicized and then followed by the authority or
person (s) that discovered them; the formal consignment to their family and also an indication
whether each species is indigenous, endemic or introduced to the area of interest, in this case
Fiji.
265