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Japan has significant diversity in flora. Of approximately 5,600 total vascular plant species, almost 40% are endemic. [1] This richness is due to the significant variation in latitude and altitude across the country, a diversity of climatic conditions due to monsoons, and multiple geohistorical incidences of connections with the mainland.
17% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. [1] Protected areas include Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, Ise-Shima National Park, Yoshino-Kumano National Park, Seto Inland Sea National Park, Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park, Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park, Unzen-Amakusa National Park, Saikai National Park, and Suigō-Tsukuba Quasi-National Park (349.56 km 2 (134.97 sq mi)).
Many plants have been introduced to Japan from mainland Asia including important crops like rice and garden plants such as the chrysanthemum. Since the Meiji Restoration, increasing numbers of plants have come from Europe, North America and elsewhere. Native food plants include the water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica) and wasabi (Wasabia japonica).
Coastal and swamp plant communities include plants characteristic of the tropical Pacific, including Ipomoea pes-caprae, Spinifex littoreus, Thespesia populnea, Terminalia catappa, and Macaranga tanarius. Mangrove species include Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Heritiera littoralis, Rhizophora stylosa, Avicennia marina, Sonneratia alba, and Nypa fruticans.
Japan is within the larger region of East Asia. For the purposes of this category, "Japan" is defined in accordance with the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions . That is, the geographic region is defined as including the following areas, typically defined by the political boundaries of its constituents:
The Honshū alpine conifer forests ecoregion covers 4,400 square miles (11,000 km 2) in the high-elevation mountains of central Honshū and the Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido, Japan. It is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in the Palearctic realm .
Japan lies at the convergence of three terrestrial realms, the Palearctic, Indomalaya, and Oceania, and its flora and fauna combine elements from all three.The ecoregions that cover the main islands of Japan, Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, and Shikoku, along with the nearby islands, are considered part of the Palearctic realm.
Laurel forests are common in subtropical eastern Asia, and form the climax vegetation in far southern Japan, Taiwan, southern China, the mountains of Indochina, and the eastern Himalayas. In southern China, laurel forest once extended throughout the Yangtze Valley and Sichuan Basin from the East China Sea to the Tibetan Plateau. The ...