Introduction

by Joel C. Timyan, Walter S. Judd, Kent D. Perkins, and Norris H. Williams

Parc National Naturel Macaya, established on 23 June 1983, is located in the Massif de la Hotte on the southern peninsula of the Republic of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles. This Web site provides a working plant checklist, specimen data and images, and references, primarily based on the work in the region by University of Florida Herbarium, Florida Museum of Natural History, botanists and collaborators, and collections on deposit in the University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS). In addition, images of the mounted EHH specimens currently housed at FLAS are available on the site; the numerous unmounted EHH specimens, however, have not been imaged. The Web site focuses on vascular plants, but includes some bryophytes, hepatics and lichens. Development of this Web site is funded, in part, by a grant from Société Audubon Haïti (2015-2017).

Parc Macaya is a remote, mountainous area with a unique ecology and many endemic and rare plant and animal species. The major vegetation communities in the park include wet forest on limestone and a complex mosaic of pine and cloud forest. Major biological surveys were conducted by the University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History in the 1980’s under the Macaya Biosphere Reserve Project, supported by a grant from USAID/Haiti (521-0191-A-00-7107). The resulting reports and publications provide fine details of the species and habitats in the park (Judd, 1987).

There have been numerous field trips and collections prepared since the initial Macaya projects. The grants and contracts supporting those trips are listed in the acknowledgements.