The biodiversity of Bukit Anak Takun, Selangor, Malaysia, with emphasis on the flora.

In 1965, Bukit Anak Takun was surrounded by primary lowland rain forest and the cave ecosystem harboured six cave bat species and a diverse invertebrate fauna. By 1970, the forest had been cleared for opencast tin-mining, now replaced by a golf course. The karst is 130 m high with a basal area of 0.618 km2. The 1970s saw a great reduction in invertebrate species and cave bats, and the discovery of possibly new taxa of a psychodid fly, a small blind cockroach and a phalangid. The bat population dwindled to one bat species with about 100 bats in 1987, to only a few bats by 2006. Bukit Anak Takun is the second locality for the Critically Endangered Liphistius batuensis. Its population has also declined. Plant collection from 1969 has accumulated 142 species of vascular plants (two selaginellas; 19 ferns; two gymonsperms and 119 species of flowering plants) representing about 11% of the total Peninsular Malaysian limestone flora. Of these species, 16 are calciphiles and 21 usually occur on limestone substrate. Seventeen (17) species are endemic in Peninsular Malaysia of which eight are calciphiles. Three species, Peperomia maxwellana, Davallia pectinata and Elatostema sp. 4 grow on Bukit Anak Takun, but not on Batu Caves nor Bukit Takun. Five species are endangered by extinction. Some populations are threatened by their small population size (Goodyera hispida 35 plants and Monophyllaea hirticalyx 23 plants). Bukit Anak Takun lies on state land outside of any Totally Protected Area. It was recently declared a Malaysian geosite, which may result in increased accessibility that will threaten Monophyllaea hirticalyx, Peperomia maxwellana and Elatostema sp. 4 with habitat disturbance and Goodyera hispida with collecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]