Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Paleotropical kingdom
References
Images
World map using color coding to show the distribution of major floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and regions. Key floral kingdoms include Boreal (green), Neotropical (pink), Paleotropical (yellow), South African or Capensic (purple), Australian (orange), and Antarctic (blue). Boundaries for subkingdoms, regions, and divisions are marked with different colored lines, and major regions such as Indoafrican, North American, and Malesian are labeled across continents.
Britannica AI Icon

Paleotropical kingdom

floral region
Also known as: Palaeotropical kingdom, Paleotropical realm
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

World map using color coding to show the distribution of major floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and regions. Key floral kingdoms include Boreal (green), Neotropical (pink), Paleotropical (yellow), South African or Capensic (purple), Australian (orange), and Antarctic (blue). Boundaries for subkingdoms, regions, and divisions are marked with different colored lines, and major regions such as Indoafrican, North American, and Malesian are labeled across continents.
Earth's floral regions Floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and major regions of the world.

The Paleotropical kingdom is a major biogeographic region recognized for its distinctive plant life. It encompasses Africa (excluding northern and southern edges), the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Southeast Asia, extending eastward into the Pacific.12

This vast region is further divided into subkingdoms, with the Indoafrican subkingdom notable for the similarity in flora between Africa and the Indian subcontinent, connected by a corridor through the Arabian Peninsula. The Malesian subkingdom includes the islands of Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula, extending to New Guinea.23

While the Paleotropical kingdom is a recognized floral region, the fauna within it is not always classified similarly, sometimes being assigned to different realms. This highlights the complexities in biogeographic classification, where plant and animal distributions do not always perfectly align due to factors like mobility and evolutionary history.23

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
8 Britannica Sources
  1. biogeographic region - Indoafrican subkingdom
  2. Caryophyllales - Distribution and abundance
  3. biogeographic region - Malesian subkingdom
  4. biogeographic region - Neotropical kingdom
  5. biogeographic region - Western and Central Asian region
  6. Myrtales - Family distributions and abundance
  7. floristic region
  8. Palaeotropical

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.