Distribution of Lucidophyll Oak-Laurel Forest Formation in Asia and Other Areas.

Summer-rain warm-temperate, wet subtropical and ropical zones in East, South and Southeast Asia are widely covered by evergreen broad-leaved forests.These forests are dominated mainly by evergreen free species ofFagaceae, Lauraceae, Theaceae, Magnoliaceae and Hamamelidaceae.Trees have leathery smooth leaves ready to reflect the sunshine and brighten, and Kira (1977) put forward a proposal of lucidophyll forest as a new nomenclature of this tlpe of evergreen broad-leaved forest.It was fust reported as Lorbeerform by Griesebach (1872) in Canarias hlands.The lucidophyll oak-laurel forests are found in ranges among 85 and 180'C month of Kira's warmth index.which corresponds to warm temperate zone and among 180 and 2zl0'C month to subtropical zones in Japan.Such lucidophyll oaklaurel forests have a wide range of distibution in Asia, New Guinea, Macaro- nesia and southeastern United States.The northern limit of its distribution is at about 40"N of the seashore or islets of Northeast District of Japan in the Pacific and at 39"N in Agres Islands in the Atlantic.The altitudinal limit goes up to about 1,000 m from sea shore in warm-temperate Japan, and upwards to about 3000 m in the wet tropical Asia.The constituent species of the foress becomes divenified as it goes to the tropics.In the area of northem limit ttre forest is dominated only by a laurel, Persea thunbergii, but forests are diversified with many species of a number of genera and families as shown in Appendix.In the hopics they are mixed with some tropical species such as climbing bamboos, screw pines, palms and CtimUing species of Araceae.On the other hand, some species oflauraceae and Fagaceae are found in the lowland tropical rain forests, but they are minority of tall lowland rain forests.In Africa temperate and montane foress (afromontane forests) do not have lauraceous and fagaceous dominants bttt for Ocotea as a companion, and their species composition is not similar with the Asian lucidophyll oak-laurel forests.Southeastern evergreen hardwood forests of the United States are dominated by Quercus (Quercus) species under summer-rain climate with hot and humid summer and not so severe winter.As their leaves also reflect sunshine and b'righten, this type of forest should be included into lucidophyll forest formation as well as Macaronesian laurel forests.The nomenclature of the lucidophyll oak-laurel forest is diversified, and a number of names have been used.They are largely classified into five goups of terms based on vertical zonation, climatic zone, leaf characters, species composition and plant sociology.The author thinks that it is desirable to give a standard name like summer green forest formation to the forest formation widely distributing in the lowland of warm-temperate, and montane areas of subtopical and ropical regions dominated by oats and /or laurels.Lucidophyll oak-laurel forest formation is a recommendable name of the formation.Evergreen Nothofagus forests evolved and developed only in the southem hemisphere under similar climate to that of lucidophyll oakJaurel forest formations, could be included into the latter formation, because rees in evergreen southem beech forests are also lucid under humid climate and both forests assembled only in New Guinea and its adjacent islands.Discussion is carried out on other types of vegetation in the Middle and South America.Key Words: evergreen broad-leaved forest / lucidophyll oak-laurel forest / ropical montane forest/ oak- laurel forest / Asian vegetarion / Souttpast Asia / vertical zonation / forest fqrnation I Nothafagw fuest Forest vegetation of Southwest Japan was first introduced !o westem countries as Lorbeer- form by Griesebach (1872).Schimper (1898) treated Lorbeerwald as remperierre Regenwald, and Brockmann-Jerosch & Riibel (1912) rcwrote Lorbeergeholz into L,aurisilvae.Later Rtibel H. Tncewe 1930) gave examples of the distribution of Laurisilvae; Canarias Islands, Madeira Islands, Portugal, Pacific coast of North America, Florida, Chile, Patagonia, Japan, south facing slope of the Himalayas, Cape and New Tnaland.Schimper paid his attention to such characters of temperate rain forest as a forest of evergreen and hygrophilous trees with leaves of glabrous, entire, leathery, thick and developed cuticle, and glossy upper surface.Schimper and Brockmann-Jerosch and Riibel included Nothofagus forests distributed in the Southern Hemisphere into t€mperate rain forests and Laurisilvae.Notlufagus is originated and evolved only in the Southem Hemisphere, and forests dominated by Nothofogas species have sympatric distribution with temperate rain forests, hereafter the present author would like to use lucidophyll oak-laurel forest in this sense, only on New Guinea and its adjacent islands.It is very interesting phenomenon, so that discussion will be made on the relationship between lucidophyll oak-laurel forest and Nothofagus forest.'Laurisilva' known from the Canarias Islands is composed of a few species of Lauraceae; Laurus azorica (canariensis), Persea indica, Ocotea foetens, and Apollonias barbuiana, Ericaceae; Erica arborea and E. scoparia, and species of a few other families.Brockmann- Jerosch & Riibel (1912) included Knysna of the Cape dominated by Olea laurifulia, Podo- carpus thunbergii, and P. elongata into conifer laurel forest (Koniferen-Lorbeerwald).These forests are found in a climate with warmer winter and hot summer with high humidity or high rainfall, but it is suspicious to include such a podocarp forest into laurisilvae except for a transitional forest from laurisilvae into another forest zone' l.aurisilvae in southwestern Japan mainly dominated by evergreen species of Fagaceae, Lauraceae, Theaceae, Magnoliaceae and Hamamelidaceae are called in Japanese 'Shdy6- jurin' which means forest with evergreen leaves ready to reflect the sunshine and brighten' Imanishi & Kira (1953) and Kira (1977,1991) put forward a proposal of lucidophyll forest as a new nomenclature of Laurisilvae.Lucidophyll forests are found in a wide range of Kira' s warmth index between 85 and 180"C month, which corresponds to warm temperate zone, and between 180 and 240"C month to subtropical zone in East Asia.This type of forests is widely distributed in the world from south facing slope of the Himalayas as described by Riibel and also in the other areas of Asia (Korea' China, Taiwan, India, Sri lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, Malaysia, and Indonesia), and New Guinea Island.In this paper the author would like to discuss the distribution of lucidophyll oak-laurel forests in Asia and in the areas other than Asia including New Guinea Island, Macaronesia, Southeast of North America, Australia, New Zealand and South America, and their species composition and terms used for this type of forest formation.