page_title: Wildlife of Christmas Island
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Wildlife of Christmas Island / Flora
caption_attribution_description: Inocarpus edulis or Inocarpus fagifer (ifi in Tonga), typical trunk
context_page_description: The wildlife of Christmas Island is composed of the flora and fauna of this isolated island in the tropical Indian Ocean. Christmas Island is the summit plateau of an underwater volcano. It is mostly clad in tropical rainforest and has karst, cliffs, wetlands, coasts and sea. It is a small island with a land area of 135 km², 63% of which has been declared a National park. Most of the rainforest remains intact and supports a large range of endemic species of animals and plants.
context_section_description: About 213 species of vascular plant are native to the island, with sixteen of them endemic. The rainforest on the upper slopes and central plateau consists of large evergreen trees with a canopy at 30 to 40 m (100 to 130 ft) and a scattering of emergent trees some 50 m (160 ft) high. The dominant trees are Planchonella duclitan, Syzygium nervosum, Tristiropsis acutangula, Inocarpus fagifer and Hernandia ovigera. Mid-storey species include two endemic trees, the Christmas Island palm, Arenga listeri and the screw pine Pandanus elatus. There are few shrubs, but the trunks and branches of the trees are swathed in a tangle of vines, orchids and ferns.
  On terraces lower down the cliffs the trees are shorter, reaching 20 to 30 m (70 to 100 ft). Here the dominant species are Pisonia grandis, Gyrocarpus americanus, Gyrocarpus americanus, Terminalia catappa and Erythrina variegata. Various shrubs grow at the foot of the cliffs and on the coastal flats, sometimes in dense thickets. These include the endemic Pandanus christmatensis and Abutilon listeri, as well as certain shrubs and trees whose buoyant seeds are dispersed across the sea such as Scaevola taccada, Cordia subcordata, Morinda citrifolia, Hibiscus tiliaceus and Guettarda speciosa.
caption: Tahitian chestnut (Inocarpus fagifer)
exif: {}