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26-726: Malesia was first identified as a floristic region that included the Malay Peninsula , the Malay Archipelago , New Guinea , and the Bismarck Archipelago , based on a shared tropical flora derived mostly from Asia but also with numerous elements of the Antarctic flora , including many species in the southern conifer families Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae . The floristic region overlaps four distinct mammalian faunal regions . The first edition of

52-650: A term thought to derive from Sanskrit malayakolam or malaikurram . While the Chinese chronicle of the Yuan dynasty mentioned the word Ma-li-yu-er , referring to a nation of the Malay Peninsula that was threatened by the southward expansion of the Sukhothai Kingdom under King Ram Khamhaeng . During the same era, Marco Polo made a reference to Malauir in his travelogue , as a kingdom located in

78-509: Is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae . The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific . Its highest levels of diversity occur from Malaysia to northeastern Australia , where many species are very poorly known and many more have not been described taxonomically. One indication of this diversity

104-552: Is home to several distinct ecoregions . The Tenasserim–South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests cover the northern peninsula, including the Tenasserim Hills and the Isthmus of Kra, and extend to the coast on both sides of the isthmus. The Kangar-Pattani floristic boundary crosses the peninsula in southern Thailand and northernmost Malaysia, marking the boundary between the large biogeographic regions of Indochina to

130-529: Is in leaf size, ranging from as little as a half inch (one cm) to as great as 4 ft 11 inches (1.5 meters) by sixteen inches (38 centimeters) in Syzygium acre of New Caledonia. Most species are evergreen trees and shrubs . Several species are grown as ornamental plants for their attractive glossy foliage, and a few produce edible fruits called roseapples that are eaten fresh or used in jams and jellies. The most economically important species, however,

156-548: Is located in Mainland Southeast Asia . The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia , Southern Thailand , and the southernmost tip of Myanmar ( Kawthaung ). The island country of Singapore also has historical and cultural ties with the region. The Titiwangsa Mountains are part of

182-555: Is now understood to include substantial two-way exchanges with Sunda inclusive of lowland taxa. Evidence for the relative contributions of the great Asiatic floristic interchanges (GAFIs) with India and Sahul, respectively, to the flora of Malesia comes from contemporary lineage distributions, the fossil record, time-calibrated phylogenies , functional traits, and the spatial structure of genetic diversity. Functional trait and biome conservatism are noted features of montane austral lineages from Sahul (e.g., diverse Podocarpaceae ), whereas

208-484: Is the clove Syzygium aromaticum , of which the unopened flower buds are an important spice . Some of the edible species of Syzygium are planted throughout the tropics worldwide, and several have become invasive species in some island ecosystems. Fifty-two species are found in Australia and are generally known as lillipillies , brush cherries or satinash . At times Syzygium was confused taxonomically with

234-836: The Peninsular Malaysian rain forests ecoregion. The Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests include distinctive waterlogged forests in the lowlands on both sides of the peninsula. Extensive mangroves line both coasts. The Myanmar Coast mangroves are on the western shore of the peninsula, and the Indochina mangroves on the eastern shore. Two federal territories are embedded within Selangor , which are Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya . [REDACTED] Media related to Malay Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons Syzygium About 1100; see List of Syzygium species Syzygium ( / s ɪ ˈ z ɪ dʒ iː ə m / )

260-591: The Straits of Johor . The Malay term Tanah Melayu is derived from the word Tanah (land) and Melayu ( Malays ), thus it means "the Malay land". The term can be found in various Malay texts, of which the oldest dating back to the early 17th century. It is frequently mentioned in the Hikayat Hang Tuah , a well-known classic tale associated with the legendary heroes of Malacca Sultanate . Tanah Melayu in

286-517: The Tenasserim Hills system and form the backbone of the peninsula and the southernmost section of the central cordillera , which runs from Tibet through the Kra Isthmus , the peninsula's narrowest point, into the Malay Peninsula. The Strait of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra , and the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by

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312-685: The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) used this definition, but in the second edition of 2001, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago were removed from Malesia and were united with the Solomon Islands , previously placed in the WGSRPD's Southwestern Pacific region, being placed into a new region, Papuasia . The western part of Malesia, which includes the Malay Peninsula and

338-659: The Antarctic flora, including southern beech ( Nothofagus ) and eucalypts . New Guinea has the highest mountains in Malesia and Papuasia, and vegetation ranges from tropical lowland forest to tundra. Major contributions to rainforest assembly have come from floristic elements which were carried on the Indian Plate and montane elements which have come from the Australian Plate ( Sahul ). The Sahul component

364-605: The Asian mainland, and have a largely Asian-derived flora, and a distinct mammalian fauna. The Philippines have approximately 50 species of Dipterocarps in 11 genera. The islands between Sundaland and New Guinea, called Wallacea , were never linked to the neighboring continents, and have a flora and fauna that include Indomalayan and Australasian elements. Dipterocarps, which are dominant in Sundaland, are less common in Wallacea, with only 13 species in 4 genera. Together with

390-522: The Malay Peninsula, possibly similar to the one mentioned in the Yuan chronicle. The Malay Peninsula was conflated with Persia in old Japan, and was known by the same name. In the early 20th century, the term Tanah Melayu was generally used by the Malays of the peninsula during the rise of Malay nationalism to describe uniting all Malay states on the peninsula under one Malay nation, and this ambition

416-615: The Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago are placed in Papuasia rather than Malesia in the second version of the WGSRPD. The eastern end of the earlier definition of Malesia, which includes New Guinea and the Aru Islands of eastern Indonesia, is linked to Australia by a shallow continental shelf, and shares many marsupial mammal and bird taxa with Australia. New Guinea also has many additional elements of

442-415: The abundance and diversity of lowland lineages, including groups such as Syzygium ( Myrtaceae ) and the Asian dipterocarps (Dipterocarpoideae), reflect a less well understood combination of dispersal, ecology, and adaptive radiations. Thus, Malesian rainforest assembly has been shaped by sharply contrasting evolutionary origins and biogeographic histories. Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula

468-538: The ancient Indian text, Vayu Purana , may possibly refer to the Malay Peninsula. Another Indian source, an inscription on the south wall of the Brihadeeswarar Temple , recorded the word Malaiur , referring to a kingdom in the Malay Peninsula that had "a strong mountain for its rampart". Ptolemy 's Geographia named a geographical region of the Golden Chersonese as Maleu-kolon ,

494-476: The difference in fauna between islands on either side of the line. Dipterocarps are predominant trees in the lowland forests of Sundaland. Sundaland has the greatest diversity of Dipterocarp species, with 10 to 14 native genera and approximately 450 native species, including approximately 267 species on Borneo, 155 on the Malay Peninsula, and 106 on Sumatra. Most of the Philippines were never connected to

520-473: The genus Eugenia (c. 1000 species), but the latter genus has its highest specific diversity in the neotropics . Many species formerly classed as Eugenia are now included in the genus Syzygium , although the former name may persist in horticulture. The Syzygium Working Group, an international group of researchers, formed in April 2016 with the aim to produce a monograph of Syzygium . The term comes from

546-461: The islands of Sumatra , Java , Bali , and Borneo , shares the large mammal fauna of Asia and is known as Sundaland . These islands are on Asia's relatively shallow continental shelf , and were linked to Asia during the ice ages , when sea levels were lower. The eastern edge of Sundaland is the Wallace line , named after Alfred Russel Wallace , the nineteenth-century British naturalist who noted

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572-430: The north and Sundaland and Malesia to the south. The forests north of the boundary are characterized by seasonally-deciduous trees, while the Sundaland forests have more year-round rainfall and the trees are mostly evergreen. Peninsular Malaysia is home to three terrestrial ecoregions. The Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests ecoregion covers the mountains above 1,000 meters elevation. The lowlands and hills are in

598-531: The peninsula – Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ), gaur ( Bos gaurus ), tiger ( Panthera tigris ), sun bear ( Helarctos malayanus ), Malayan tapir ( Tapirus indicus ), clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa ), and siamang ( Symphalangus syndactylus ). The Sumatran rhinoceros ( Dicerorhinus sumatrensis ) once inhabited the forests, but Malaysia's last rhinoceroses died in 2019, and the species' few remaining members survive only in Sumatra . The peninsula

624-502: The region of Malaios surrounded by the Andaman Sea in the north, the entire Strait of Malacca in the centre, a part of Sunda Strait in the south, and the western part of South China Sea in the east. Prior to the foundation of Malacca, ancient and medieval references to a Malay peninsula exist in various foreign sources. According to several Indian scholars, the word Malayadvipa ("mountain-insular continent"), mentioned in

650-539: The text is consistently employed to refer to the area under Malaccan dominance. In the early 16th century, Tomé Pires , a Portuguese apothecary who stayed in Malacca from 1512 to 1515, uses an almost identical term, Terra de Tana Malaio , with which he referred to the southeastern part of Sumatra, where the deposed sultan of Malacca, Mahmud Shah , established his exiled government. The 17th century's account of Portuguese historian, Emanuel Godinho de Erédia , noted on

676-558: Was largely realised with the formation of Persekutuan Tanah Melayu ( Malay for " Federation of Malaya ") in 1948. The Malay Peninsula is covered with tropical moist broadleaf forests . Lowland forests are dominated by dipterocarp trees, while montane forests are home to evergreen trees in the beech family ( Fagaceae ), Myrtle family ( Myrtaceae ), laurel family ( Lauraceae ), tropical conifers , and other plant families. The peninsula's forests are home to thousands of species of animals and plants. Several large endangered mammals inhabit

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