Included here are the Maluku Islands (formerly the Moluccas) including Ambon, Buru, Seram and Halmahera, and the Banda Islands. In Seram’s Manusela National Park rainforests are largely associated with leached, base-poor soils of steep slopes and low ridges. The upper canopy seems to be mainly dominated by the endemic Shorea selanica (Dipterocarpaceae), which is the only dipterocarp species in the lowland forests of north Seram. In the absence of other dipterocarps this species has become highly dominant and possibly explains why these forests tend to be less diverse than dipterocarp forests found elsewhere in Malesia. Typical sub canopy trees include Calophyllum soulattri, Ganua motleyana and Polyalthia glauca.

References

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