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Christmas Island National Park

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Flora

Christmas Island's flora assemblage has developed largely due to the influences of warm temperatures, high rainfall, isolation, fauna, and geological history.

The natural vegetation on the island can be categorised into three main community types:

• Primary rainforest
• Marginal Rainforest
• Scrub Forest (also referred to as open forest and vine forest)

There are also some other types of natural vegetation that are restricted to smaller areas on Christmas Island. These include the Coastal Fringe Forest (also referred to as Shore Cliff and Spray Zone Vegetation), and areas with surface water (Hosnies Springs, the Dales, and parts of the Eastern Terraces). Christmas Island's vegetation is like no other on earth due to its endemic plants and animals and the presence of a large population of land crabs and seabirds.

There are approximately 411 plant species on Christmas Island and approximately 18 of these are endemic (Flora of Australia - Vol. 50, 1993).

Endemic Plants	Habit	General Location
Abutilon listeri	shrub	coastal fringe and terraces
Arenga listeri	tree palm	plateau and terraces
Asplenium listeri	fern	terraces
Asystasia alba	herb	coastal fringe and terraces
Brachypeza archytas	orchid	terraces
Colubrina pedunculata	shrub	terraces
Dicliptera maclearii	herb	coastal fringe and terraces
Dendrocnide peltata var. murrayana	tree	terraces
Flickeringia nativitatis	orchid	plateau
Grewia insularis	shrub/tree	terraces
Hoya aldrichii	vine	plateau
Ischaemum nativitatis	grass	coastal fringe
Pandanus christmatensis	shrub/tree	terraces
Pandanus elatus	tree	plateau and terraces
Phreatia listeri	orchid	plateau
Peperromia rossii	herb	plateau
Zehneria alba	vine	coastal fringe and terraces
Zeuxine exilis	orchid	plateau

Exotic Plants

Over 230 Christmas Island plant species are exotic having been introduced by humans over the last century. About 80 of these exotic species are now categorised as noxious weeds, threatening species, or common alien invaders of natural areas on mainland Australia, Pacific Islands and tropical America.

Several exotic trees, shrubs and vines have established in the settled areas and disturbed areas throughout the island. A number of species have begun to spread into undisturbed forest areas including coffee bush, (Clausena excavata), black sage (Cordia curassivica), African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata), royal poinciana (Delonix regia) and candlenut (Aleurites moluccana). The threats posed by these plants are attrition of the forest edges or the interruption of natural succession. Some exotic species, such as poinciana and candlenut which were widely planted in previous rehabilitation operations, require control to prevent them spreading in forest areas.

As further information is collected on weed control biology and control methods, the strategy will progress from control to eradication of identified priority species.

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