Abstract: Eastern Polynesia, a phytogeographical subregion of Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, comprises the archipelagoes of the Cook Islands, the Austral Islands, the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the

inhabited island of Polynesia. It consists of a total of about 140 tropical to sub-tropical oceanic islands that are among the most remote in the world, being over 3,000 km distant from the nearest continents. Because of this strong geographic isolation, the relatively young geological age, and small terrestrial surface (less than 4,000 km2) of these islands, the native flora of eastern Polynesia is impov-erished, disharmonic, and with a relative low number of endemic genera (12). However, some high volcanic islands within these archipelagoes display a great diversity of habitats and a highly endemic flora (e.g., 50 % for the vascular plants in Nuku Hiva, 45 % in Tahiti) with striking cases of adaptative radiation (e.g., in the genera Eidens, Cyrtandra, Glochidion, Myrsine, and Psychotria). Most of these endemic taxa are restricted to montane rain forests and cloud forests. These upland wet forests are not directly threatened by habitat destruction by humans or disturbance by large mammals but rather by invasive alien plants. Native forests of eastern Polynesian islands are invaded by aggressive introduced species (e.g., Lantana camara and Psidium cattleianum in most island groups; Sy