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In today's world, Eastern Asiatic Region has become a topic of increasing interest. Whether due to its impact on society, its relevance in the academic field or its influence on popular culture, Eastern Asiatic Region has positioned itself as a topic of constant debate and reflection. From its origins to the present, Eastern Asiatic Region has been the subject of study and analysis by experts in different areas, who have tried to decipher its multiple facets and understand its importance in the development of humanity. In this article, we will explore the different perspectives from which Eastern Asiatic Region can be approached, and we will analyze its relevance in the contemporary world.
The Eastern Asiatic Region (also known as Oriasiaticum, Sino-Japanese Region, East Asian Region, Temperate Eastern Region) is the richest floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom and situated in temperate East Asia. It has been recognized as a natural floristic area since 1872 August Grisebach's volume Die Vegetation der Erde and later delineated by such geobotanists as Ludwig Diels, Adolf Engler (as Temperate Eastern region), Ronald Good (as Sino-Japanese Region) and Armen Takhtajan.
The Eastern Asiatic Region is dominated by very old lineages of gymnosperms and woody plant families and is thought to be the cradle of the Holarctic flora. Moreover, this floristic region wasn't significantly glaciated in the Pleistocene, and many relict Tertiary genera (such as Metasequoia glyptostroboides, ancestors of which were once common throughout the Northern Hemisphere up to subpolar latitudes) found refuge here.
The Eastern Asiatic Region endemic flora is characterized by:
Approximately eight other families are shared with tropical Southeast Asia (Nageiaceae, Rhodoleiaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, Pentaphyllaceae, Duabangaceae, Mastixiaceae, Pentaphragmataceae, Lowiaceae). As has long been noted, many relict genera occurring in East Asia, such as Liriodendron and Hamamelis, are shared with temperate North America, especially the North American Atlantic Region.
The Eastern Asiatic Region is bordered by the Circumboreal Region of the Holarctic Kingdom in the north, the Irano-Turanian Region of the same kingdom in the west and Indian, Indochinese and Malesian Regions of the Paleotropical Kingdom in the south. It comprises the southern part of the Russian Far East, southern part of Sakhalin, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, relatively humid eastern part of the mainland China from Manchuria and the seashore to Eastern Himalaya and Kali Gandaki Valley in Nepal, including Sikkim, northern Burma and northernmost Vietnam (parts of Tonkin).
According to a version of Takhtajan's classification, the Eastern Asiatic Region is further subdivided into 13 provinces; however, the number and delimitation of the southern provinces is disputed and varies even across Takhtajan's work.
Cheng-yih Wu. Delineation and Unique Features of the Sino-Japanese Floristic Region. David E. Boufford and Hideaki Ohba (eds.), University of Tokyo Bulletin 37: Sino-Japanese Flora — Its Characteristics and Diversification. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1998.