www.frst.unimas.my@department of plant science and environmental ecology

The  Araceae  ((aroids) are predominantly tropical in distribution, with 90% of the 110 genera, and c. 95% of c. 4000+ species restricted to the everwet or  perhumid  tropics.  Tribe  Schismatoglottideae is the most speciose and diverse  aroid  taxon in Borneo, comprising in excess of the 100 species of which  over  95%  are  endemic. Besides the largest genus, Schismatoglottis Zoll.  &  Moritzi,  the  tribe  includes,  four  small  ‘satellite’ genera, Aridarum  Ridl.,  Bucephalandra Schott, Phymatarum M. Hotta and Piptospatha N.E.  Br. that are endemic to Borneo, except the last, which extends to the Malay  Peninsula  and Southern Peninsular Thailand. Schismatoglottis itself extends  from Myanmar (Burma) to Vanuatu, and Southern China to New Guinea, but  it  is  most  abundant  and  diverse in Borneo. Molecular phylogenetic research  of  the  Araceae  (Cabrera et al., 2008; Barabé et al., 2004) has established  the  monophyly  of  the  Schismatoglottideae  but considerable research remains to be done to resolve generic boundaries within the tribe.