Taxonomic List and Conservation Status on the Beach Forest Flora of Homonhon Island, Philippines

Background and Objectives: Limited studies have been done on Philippines Island beach forest species. Here, we reported a preliminary study on the Beach Forest of Homonhon Island, Philippines. Materials and Methods: To document the beach flora species, 10 × 10 m quadrats were made in a 2-km transect with a 20 quadrats per sampling area. A total of 50 quadrats were established with 100-meter interval, except in Pagbabangnan beach forest with only 10 quadrats due to the inaccessibility of the area. The beach forests were located in the barangays of Habag (sandy shore), Casuguran (intertidal pool) and Pagbabangnan (rocky shore), in the island of Homonhon, Philippines. Results: A total of 44 families, 89 genera and 103 beach forest species were identified. The most numbered family is Euphorbiaceae (9), Leguminosae (8) species, Compositae and Poaceae (7) and Rubiaceae (6), Malvaceae (5) Araceae, Convolvulaceae (4), while the rest of the genera have three to fewer species. Among sites, Habag beach forest is the most diverse with 38 families, 80 genera, 95 species followed by Pagbabangnan beach forest with 25 families, 32 genera and 32 species and Casuguran beach forest with 21 families. Conclusion: The findings of the study would be a great help to at least fill the gap on the scarcity of data on the beach flora species in the Philippine Island. The forest of Homonhon Island are affected by mining activities, with the depressing threats of extinction at hand. It is hope that the findings of this study will encourage more researchers to perform floristic survey on the Philippine beach forest to catalogue the species before they become prey to extinction.