Threatened and Endemic Seed Plants of Mt. Pantaron Range, Mindanao, Philippines

Abstract

Mt. Pantaron Range has no legislation for its protection and has significantly lost most of its forest cover over the years due to land conversion for agriculture and human settlement, construction of national highways, and illegal logging and mining. Floristic inventory was conducted in four sampling sites in Mt. Pantaron Range, Bukidnon to document its threatened and endemic seed plants through repeated transect walks. A total of 133 threatened and endemic species of seed plants were documented. Of these, 41 species were threatened, and 120 were endemic species. Mt. Bungkasan, Pantaron Range harbors 70 (52.6%) species of threatened and endemic seed plants, followed by Mt. Malimumu with 53 (40%) species, Mt. Natampod with 40 (30%) species, and Mt. Nabagkesan with only 19 (14%) species. The checklist of threatened seed plants reported herein represents 4.3% of the threatened seed plants and 2.6% of the endemic seed plants in the Philippines. Site comparisons using Bray-Curtis cluster analysis in terms of threatened and endemic species composition are relatively low (≤ 33%), implying the uniqueness of the species for each site in the said mountain range. The assemblage of threatened and endemic seed plants in Mt. Pantaron Range calls for immediate conservation endeavors by the stakeholders to warrant the protection of its threatened and endemic seed plants.