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TheEastern Asiatic region (also known asOriasiaticum,Sino-Japanese region,East Asian region,Temperate Eastern region) is the richestfloristic region within theHolarctic kingdom and situated intemperateEast Asia. It has been recognized as a natural floristic area since 1872August Grisebach's volumeDie Vegetation der Erde and later delineated by such geobotanists asLudwig Diels,Adolf Engler (as Temperate Eastern region),Ronald Good (as Sino-Japanese region) andArmen Takhtajan.
The Eastern Asiatic region is dominated by very old lineages ofgymnosperms and woody plant families and is thought to be the cradle of theHolarctic flora. Moreover, this floristic region was not significantly glaciated in thePleistocene, and manyrelictTertiary genera (such asMetasequoia glyptostroboides, ancestors of which were once common throughout theNorthern Hemisphere up to subpolar latitudes) found refuge here.
The Eastern Asiatic regionendemic flora is characterized by:
Approximately eight other families are shared with tropical Southeast Asia (Nageiaceae,Rhodoleiaceae,Daphniphyllaceae,Pentaphyllaceae,Duabangaceae,Mastixiaceae,Pentaphragmataceae,Lowiaceae). As has long been noted, many relict genera occurring in East Asia, such asLiriodendron andHamamelis, are shared with temperate North America, especially theNorth American Atlantic Region.
The Eastern Asiatic region is bordered by theCircumboreal region of the Holarctic kingdom in the north, theIrano-Turanian region of the same kingdom in the west andIndian,Indochinese andMalesian regions of thePaleotropical kingdom in the south. It comprises the southern part of theRussian Far East, southern part ofSakhalin,Manchuria,Korea,Japan,Taiwan, relatively humid eastern part of the mainlandChina fromManchuria and the seashore toEastern Himalaya andKali Gandaki Valley inNepal, includingSikkim, northernBurma and northernmostVietnam (parts ofTonkin).
According to a version of Takhtajan's classification, the Eastern Asiatic region is further subdivided into 13 provinces; however, the number anddelimitation of the southern provinces is disputed and varies even across Takhtajan's work.
Cheng-yih Wu.Delineation and Unique Features of the Sino-Japanese Floristic Region. David E. Boufford and Hideaki Ohba (eds.),University of Tokyo Bulletin 37: Sino-Japanese Flora – Its Characteristics and Diversification. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1998.
