New records of flowering plants for the flora of Myanmar collected from southern Shan State

Myanmar’s plant diversity is expected to be very high given the wide variety of climates and the diverse vegetation and geographical features of the country. Since the publication of Kress et al.’s plant checklist in 2003, new and unrecorded species have been constantly reported by various botanists, but much of Myanmar’s flora requires more intensive examinations. We conducted joint floristic surveys of several Ywangan areas, including the Panlaung-Pyadalin Cave Wildlife Sanctuary in southern Shan State of Myanmar. The initial identification of seed plant specimens collected from three short floristic expeditions revealed that 23 species were newly recorded species in Myanmar. More than half of these were found to be geographically notable species, which are known to be endemic to neighboring countries such as China (4 spp.), Thailand (6 spp.), and India (2 spp.). A considerable number of these unrecorded species are distributed in the limestone areas of neighboring countries, reflecting the geological characteristics of the survey area. The results of this study reemphasize the need for intensive and continuous research on the flora of Myanmar for a more comprehensive understanding of the distribution patterns of flowering plants in Southeast Asia.