A review of the Araceae of Peninsular Malaysia, including its off-shore islands, is presented as a precursor to revising the family for the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia project. The aroid flora of Peninsular Malaysia comprises 28 genera and ca 140 indigenous (of which17 provisionally accepted) with 25 species (ca 17%) endemic. Peninsular Malaysia has no endemic aroid genera. As compared to Thailand with 29 genera, ca 200 species of which 62 species (ca 30%) are endemic, and Borneo where 38 genera (of which are 10 endemic), and currently 670 indigenous species of which more than 40% are undescribed and about 95% are endemic. An historical review of Araceae research in Peninsular Malaysia, and keys to higher taxa are provided. Most genera are illustrated. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia

Every genus is described and illustrated with one or more plates of line drawings by the botanical artist Eleanor Catherine, and distribution maps. Topics covered include their economic value, phylogenetic relationships, fossil history, cultivation, anatomy (by J.C. French) and chemistry (by R. Hegnauer).

This book primarily examines human-animal and human-plant interactions in Asian forests (Southeast Asia and Japan) and inland waters (China). For comparison, cases from the Americas (whales in the Arctic, sea turtles in the Caribbean, and plants in the Amazon) and Central Asia are also included. The relationship between plants, animals, and humans in Asia is quite unique from a global perspective. For example, "satoyama" in Japan means ecotone area, or the boundary between a village and a forest. There, as the number of inhabitants declines, bears, wild boars, and other animals increasingly ravage crops, sometimes attacking humans as well. By showing the regional nature of human-animal and human-plant interactions in Asia, this book provides for the first time a framework for understanding the world's animal and plant-human relationships. It is assumed that the relationships between humans and animals and plants during this period were diverse, including hunting, taming, semi-domestication, and full domestication. At the same time, for regions outside of Asia, the extent to which these diverse relationships were adapted and how diversity was formed is explained from the perspective of historical ecology. Customers can expect to derive perspectives on the coexistence of human-animal and plant-animal relationships from this book in the near future. The conservation of rare species, diverse habitats, and biodiversity is a central theme in considering the relationship between modern civilization and the global environment. In post-industrial Japan, one focus has been the protection of iconic animals such as storks, crested ibis, dugongs, and sea turtles, while damage to crops and humans by deer, wild boars, monkeys, bears, and other common animals has become an important social issue. How can the world's 7.7 billion-plus people live in harmony with other species? We would like to get some hints on how to solve the problems we are facing.

Researchers in the field of natural product chemistry and pharmacology focus on discovering new drugs from medicinal plants. The medicinal plants of Sabah (North Borneo), many of which are found in all of Asia and the Pacific, represent a vast array of resources that could be used for the discovery of drugs and the development of cosmetics as well as functional food. No other book focuses on the medicinal plants from this part of the globe in such depth. The author is well known in natural products and this text will appeal to a global audience in presenting the botanical description, chemical constituents, pharmacology, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and functional food potentials of these plants. Features: Describes in a phylogenetic order the habitats, distributions, botanical descriptions, local names, uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, and toxic effects of more than 250 species of medicinal plants of Sabah Provides a selection of botanical plates of medicinal plants endemic to Sabah, hand-drawn by the author Provides comment sections to invite further research on the topic of the development of drugs, dietary products, and cosmetics from Sabah medicinal plants

Tracing the evolution of one of the most ancient major branches of flowering plants, this is a wide-ranging survey of state-of-the-art research on the early clades of the monocot phylogenetic tree. It explores a series of broad but linked themes, providing for the first time a detailed and coherent view of the taxa of the early monocot lineages, how they diversified and their importance in monocots as a whole. Featuring contributions from leaders in the field, the chapters trace the evolution of the monocots from largely aquatic ancestors. Topics covered include the rapidly advancing field of monocot fossils, aquatic adaptations in pollen and anther structure and pollination strategies and floral developmental morphology. The book also presents a new plastid sequence analysis of early monocots and a review of monocot phylogeny as a whole, placing in an evolutionary context a plant group of major ecological, economic and horticultural importance.