Included here is the island of Taiwan and the Sakishima Islands.
Some of the best examples of lowland rainforest in Taiwan are found in the Nanjenshan Reserve (part of the Kenting National Park) situated on the Hengshun Peninsula on the southern part of the island. Here the forests can be divided into a Machilus-Castanopsis zone on the windward slopes and ridge tops and a Ficus-Castanopsis zone mainly confined to the valleys. Both of these are noteworthy in biogeographical terms for their admixture of Holarctic and tropical elements. In the Machilus-Castanopsis zone the main trees apart from Machilus thunbergia, M. zuihoensis and Castanopsis cuspidata var. carlesii include Cyclobalanopsis championii, C. longinus, Daphniphyllum glaucescens subsp. oldhamii, Illicum arborescens, Lithocarpus amygdalifolius, Schefflera octophylla, Schima superba var. kankoensis and the endemic Eurya nitida var. nanjenschanensis (Theaceae). The canopy can reach heights of 15 m on leeward slopes but can be as low as 3 m on windward slopes. Among the tallest trees are Cyclobalanopsis championii, C. longinus and Castanopsis cuspidata, whereas Illicum arborescens is usually a sub canopy species. The main plant families are Aquifoliaceae, Araliaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, Illiciaceae, Lauraceae and Myrtaceae. In the Ficus-Castanopsis zone the most important trees are Bischofia javanica, Castanopsis indica, Dendrocnide meyeniana, Dysoxylum kushkusense, Ilex rotunda, Lagerstroemia subcostata, Machilus japonica var. kusanoi, Schefflera octophyllum and Sloanea formosana with a canopy height of up to 20 m. However, these forests tend to be dominated by large emergent species of Bischofia javanica, Ficus benjamina and Ilex rotunda. Several species have large buttress roots and most trees support a rich epiphytic flora and thick lianas. The most important plant families are Aquifoliaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lauraceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae and Urticaceae. The species richness of these forests is comparable with those of southern China but lower than Hainan Island forests.
References
Balgooy, Van. M. M. J. 1969. A study of the diversity of island floras. Blumea, 17: 139-178.
Cheng, K. L. et al. 1978. Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, 7:34-54.
Hsieh, C-F., Sun, I-F. & Yang, C-C. 2000. Species composition and vegetation pattern of a lowland rain forest at the Nanjenshan LTER site, southern Taiwan. Taiwania, 45: 107-119.
Li, Hui-Lin. 1963. Woody flora of Taiwan. Livingstone Publishing Company, Pennsylvania.
Li, Hui-Lin & Keng, H. 1950. Phytogeographical affinities of southern Taiwan. Taiwania, 1: 103-128.
Richardson, S. D. Date ? Forestry in communist China. The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore.
Sun, I-F., Hsieh, C-F. & Hubbell, S. P. 1998. Structure and species composition of a sub-tropical rain forest in southern Taiwan on a wind-stressed gradient. In: Forest Biodiversity Research, Monitoring and Modeling. Eds. F. Dallmeier and J. A. Comiskey. Man and the Biosphere Series, Volume 40. The Parthenon Publishing Group.
Wang, Chi-Wu. 1961. The forests of China with a survey of grassland and desert vegetation. Maria Moors Cabot Foundation, Publication No. 5. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Yong-Chang, S. & Guo-Shi, X. 2003. A scheme of vegetation classification of Taiwan, China. Acta Botanica Sinica, 45: 883-895.