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« Back » Unique Samoan features » Natural flora

The Chain of Life

The Samoan archipelago contains the third and fourth largest islands in tropical Polynesia. On these islands you can find salt marshes, coastal areas, freshwater marshes, and three types of forests: lowland forest, montane forest, and cloud forest. These forests sustain a diversity of plants, land birds, and other species found here and nowhere else.

Special Features

This ecoregion consists of 14 volcanic islands, the largest of which--Savai'i and Upolu in Western Samoa--make up about 90 percent of the total land area. Overall, the islands become younger as you travel west to east. The western island of Tutuila is at least 1.6 million years old, while the eastern island of Savai'i erupted as recently as 1911. More than 80 inches (200 cm) of rain falls on this ecoregion each year, with the tops of the highest mountains receiving more than 315 inches (800 cm). December to March are the wettest months--and the time when devastating cyclones whip through the region.

Local conservation groups, such as Si'osi'omaga and the O le Vaomatua, are active in trying to protect the unique wildlife and forests of Samoa.

Wild Side

Visit this ecoregion and you'll find more than 550 species of flowering plants, nearly one-third of which are found here and nowhere else. Among these are at least one hundred species of native orchid. You'll also see a variety of birds, including the fruit-eating Samoan tooth-billed pigeon, the Pacific pigeon, the blue-crowned lory, and the Samoan white-eye. Many of the islands' birds are endangered, including the Australian gray duck, purple swamphen, many-colored fruit-dove, Samoan ground-dove, ma'o, and island thrush. The Samoan flying fox, a large bat with a foxlike face, lives in this ecoregion but is endangered because it is hunted for food. Bibron's keel-scaled boa and other native snakes slither through the undergrowth.

Cause for Concern

Since the Polynesians arrived to these islands about 3,000 years ago, more than 80 percent of the lowland rain forest has been lost. Forests have been cleared for agriculture and timber. Cyclones occasionally devastate large areas of forest and are especially damaging to smaller, remnant forest patches. Subsistence hunting threatens many local species, including pigeons, fruit bats, and coconut crabs. There are a few protected areas on the islands, including the O Le Pupu Pu National Park. Introduced species, such as cats, rats, and the 'Upolo (Mikania micrantha), or "mile-a-minute" vine, threaten many native species and habitats.

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