Endemic Centres and Endemic Plants

A species is termed endemic when it is found restricted to one specific geographic region and nowhere else — the scale of that region can range from an entire continent down to a single island — and endemism typically arises from factors such as geographic isolation, interspecific interactions, seed-dispersal limitations, and site-specific habitat requirements combined with broader environmental and ecological constraints. India hosts three megacentres and 27 micro-endemic centres of plant endemism, concentrated in three major phytogeographical regions: the Indian Himalayas, Peninsular India and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, with roughly one-third of the country's total flora classified as endemic. Peninsular India, and the Western Ghats in particular, holds an especially high concentration of endemic plants, a large share of which belong to families such as Poaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Orchidaceae. Named examples include Baccaurea courtallensis and Agasthiyamalaia pauciflora (trees of the Southern Western Ghats/Peninsular India), Hardwickia binata (Peninsular and northern India), Bentinckia condapanna (a palm tree endemic to the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu and Kerala), and Nepenthes khasiyana (a liana endemic to the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya). Because endemic species by definition already occupy a narrow, specific habitat, they face compounding threats from reduced seed production, low dispersal rates …