1Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew The distribution of Cyrtandra in SE Asia

Cyrtandra is a large genus of c.800 species of herbs, shrubs, climbers and, rarely, trees. It is a predominantly SE Asian group although its distribution extends out across the Pacific to Hawaii. Its centres of diversity in SE Asia are New Guinea and Borneo (each with over 150 species) and the Philippines (over 80 species). It is found in the rainforest, from sea level to over 2000 m. Cyrtandra as a biogeographic tool The exceptional species diversity, high levels of local endemism and the wide distribution of Cyrtandra make it an ideal candidate for looking at biogeographic questions in the region and investigating the processes which underlie modern patterns of biodiversity (eg Atkins et al., 2001). Preliminary analyses of c