The
Paleotropical Kingdom (
Paleotropis) is a
floristic kingdom comprising tropical areas of
Africa,
Asia and
Oceania (excluding
Australia and
New Zealand), as proposed by
Ronald Good and
Armen Takhtajan. Its
flora is characterized by about 40
endemic plant
families, e.g.
Nepenthaceae,
Musaceae,
Pandanaceae,
Flagellariaceae. Part of its flora, inherited from the ancient supercontinent of
Gondwana or exchanged later (e.g.
Piperaceae with pantropical distribution and but few warm temperate representatives), is shared with the
Neotropical Kingdom, comprising tropical areas of
Central and
South America. Moreover, the Paleotropical flora influenced the tropical flora of the Australian Kingdom. The Paleotropical Kingdom is subdivided into five floristic subkingdoms according to Takhtajan (or three, according to Good) and about 13
floristic regions. In this article the floristic subkingdoms and regions are given as delineated by Takhtajan.