Vascular plant species of the Kingdom of Tonga by vegetation type, species origin, growth form, and dispersal mechanism

The aim of this research is to compile a database of vascular plants found in the Kingdom of Tonga in western Polynesia, a phyto-geographic subregion of the South Pacific. The Tongan islands are spread over ~600,000 km2 of the Pacific Ocean between 15-23° S latitude and 173-177° W longitude. The archipelago is comprised of 171 islands with an aggregate land area of about 720 km2 . Since there is no comprehensive or updated flora for Tonga, we...