Sulawesi which was formerly known as Celebes, is one of the big island in Indonesia. The island is the most important island in the “Wallacea subregion”, situated in the centre of the Indonesian archipelago, between Borneo (Kalimantan) and the Moluccan islands. Van Steenis (1979) revealed that phytogeography of Sulawesi is part of the Malesian floristic unit; its flora is reportedly related to the Philippines, New Guenea, and Borneo and belongs to the Eastern Malesian.
The Scientific knowledge of Sulawesi’s flora both taxonomically and ecologically is still limited due to lack botanical research and publication on this subject (Bass et al. 1990; Keßler 2002), for example the amount of botanical expedition in Sumatra 20 times than Sulawesi (Veldkamp et al. 1997) and in whole island’s surface, the plant collection density is with 25 per 100 km² one of the lowest in Malesia (Kessler et al. 2002) but Sulawesi has recently been identified as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, especially rich in species found nowhere else in the world and under major threat from widespread deforestation (Pitopang and Gradstein 2003).
During 2007-2008, some botanical field works have been conducted at the Lore Lindu National Park and Morowali Nature Reserve in the island of Sulawesi. by The Nature Conservation (TNC) Palu field office under coordination Dr. Ramadanil Pitopang The structure and taxonomic composition of the vegetation showed different pattern compare to Borneo, Sumatra or other islands in the western part of Indonesia. The high number of new records in tree species (dbh >10 cm) for the island of Sulawesi is remarkable. Out of 102 total number of tree species in 1,6 Ha at the Lore Lindu national Park , We were recorded 35 tree species are new record for Sulawesi. These species are Goniothalamus phillipinensis Merr (Annonaceae), Gastonia serratifolia (Miq.) Phillipson (Araliaceae), Areca vestiaria Giseke (Arecaceae), Cyathea celebica Blume (Cyatheaceae), Elaeocarpus glaber Blume (Elaeocarpaceae), E. luteolignum Coode (Elaeocarpaceae), Lithocarpus elegans (Blume) Hatus. Ex. Supadmo (Fagaceae), Platea latifolia Blume (Icacinaceae), Magnolia montana (Blume) Figlar & Noot., Laviera montana Becc, Mathaea sancta Blume ( Monimiaceae), Dysoxyllum acutangulum Miq. Subsp foveolatum (Radlk.) Mabb (Meliaceae), Ficus aurita Blume, Ficus calcarata Corner, Ficus glandulifera King, Ficus ramiflora Corner ex CC. Berg (Moraceae), Ixora longifolia Valeton, Porteandia celebica Zahid and Psychotria malayana Jack (Rubiaceae), Gymnacranthera farquhariana Warb var. zippeliana R.T. Schouten, Knema stellata subsp.minahassae (warb) W.J. de Wilde and Myristica simiarum subsp celebica (Miq) W.J. de Wilde (Myristicaceae).
The other botanist who were made botanical survey in Sulawesi also found some spectacular research finding. They recorded a proposed new species for the science such as Dysoxyllum quadrangulatum spec.nov (H. Culmsee 2008, data will be published) and Nepenthes pitopangii spec. nov. (Lee 2008, data will be published). These data indicated that the island of Sulawesi is home of the unexplored plant diversity in Wallacea region