Indian Journal of Ecology

The flora of Truong Sa islands has a number of features of tropical island flora. The research results had recorded 265 species, belonging to 200 genera and 74 families of vascular plants, in which 146 new species were added to the flora of Truong Sa islands. Representatives of the dominant families such as Fabaceae, Poaceae, Malvaceae, Cyperaceae or Asteraceae had the most species-rich genus- Cyperus (8 species). The flora of Truong Sa islands had a quite even proportion of lifeforms, Phanerophytes occupied the highest proportion with only 33.58%, while Hemicryptophytes madeup 23.40%, and Therophytes accounted for 21.51%. Species were distributed mainly in biotopes of island (H1) (88 species), 57 species that were divided into 2 biotopes were widely distributed. The study had counted 157 natural and naturalized species, accounting for 59.25% of the total species investigated on the islands. The flora of Truong Sa islands had typically tropical characteristics with 57.74% of the species belonging to the tropical element group. The flora had a relatively high conservation value with 39.24% of species and 66.21% of plant families listed on the IUCN Red List. There were 3 species were vulnerable (VU) in IUCN Red List 2021, 1 species was endangered (EN) and 1 species was vulnerable (VU) in Viet Nam Red Data Book 2007.