The Orchid Flora of Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), Malaysia - 120 Years after Ridley

Abstract

A comprehensive assessment on the orchid flora of Gunung Ledang, Johor, Malaysia was carried out from 2012 to 2018 with the aim to re-evaluate the presence of orchid species listed by Ridley in his “Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 35:1–28”, published in 1901, after more than 100 years. The relevant account for comparison is also listed, noting that Ridley’s historical collections were for the isolated group of hills commonly known as Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), while the collated item in Orchidaceae is part of catalogues for the whole of Peninsular Malaysia. After Ridley, no account on the orchid flora of Gunung Ledang has been properly given, particularly from the uppermost peak of the mountain, where many interesting plants and orchids are to be found there. This study identified 26 species or 67% were the same as those recorded by Ridley (1901), and 65 species or 83% of Turner (1995) checklist of 270 species of orchids for the state of Malacca and Johor, including the common and widespread species to Peninsular Malaysia. By contribution, this paper provides an updated account on the diversity of orchids in Gunung Ledang, listing 122 species of orchids, of which eight are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, two are hyper-endemic known only from Gunung Ledang, and 30 were recognised as new records. A comparison table of the current findings against Ridley (1901) and Turner (1995) is provided which shows only 16 species were the same in all three studies.