Part 4 Forest Ecosystem Proceedings of the International Symposium on TROPICAL PEATLANDS Bogor, Indonesia, 22-23 November 1999 Hokkaido University & Indonesian Institute of Sciences pp. 153-164 (2000) Floristic Composition of Peat Swamp Forest in Mensemat-Sambas, West Kalimantan Mustaid SIREGAR and Edy Nasriadi SAMBAS Research and Development Center for Biology, The Indonesian Institute of Sciences Jalan Juanda 22, Bogor 16122, Indonesia, E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The floristic composition of a 1.05 ha (70 m by 150 m) plot in an old-growth peat swamp forest was studied at Mensemat, Sambas Regency, West Kalimantan. Number of species and density of trees with more than 10 cm in diameter was 86 species and 698 trees/ha, while small tree of 2-10 cm in diameter was 100 species and 5043 trees/ha, respectively. The most abundant trees were Blumeodendron elatriospermum (47 trees/ha), Cyatocalyx biovulatus (39 trees/ha), Blumeodendron tokbrai (32 trees/ha), Lithocarpus encleisacarpus (30 trees/ha) and Syzygium chlorantha (30 trees/ha) with greater number of individual at smaller diameter classes. The most diverse families are Euphorbiaceae, Annonaceae and Dipterocarpaceae represented mostly by small-sized trees ranging between diameter 2-30 cm and rarely exceeding dbh 60 cm. Key words: peat swamp forest, floristic composition, Mensemat, West Kalimantan. Introduction Most of the peat swamp forest around Sambas Regency; West Kalimantan has been disturbed due to land conversion and logging. Some of the disturbed peat swamp areas were drained by artificial canals and have been converted into agricultural land, such as for rubber, coffee, pineapple and other fruits plants.