Locality: Samoa Archipelago (-14.316880, -170.761250)

Abstract: This checklist presents 46 taxa of the the 101 species in 47 genera in Samoa as recorded by Cribb and Whistler. There are very few areas of the western South Pacific, i.e., Melanesia and West Polynesia, which do not have a modem treatment of the Orchidaceae. Apart from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands there are orchid floras of New Caledonia (Hall6 1977) and Fiji (Kores 1991), both very rich in numbers of species. The other country in the region, apart from temperate New Zealand, which has a fairly large number of orchids for its size is Tonga. The northern high volcanoes of this country are close to Western Samoa and most of their plants also grow in Samoa. There are probably between 50 and 55 species of orchids in Tonga.
Reference: Cribb, P. and W.A. Whistler. 1996. Orchids of Samoa, by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 141 p. and 18 pl.

Notes: Scientific names have been updated to follow the APG IV system of flowering plant classification.