Biodiversidad de las plantas vasculares de las Islas Baleares

In this paper the main quantitative descriptors of the vascular flora of the Balearic Islands are presented. The autochthonous flora has 1729 taxa, with a rate of 4.7 genus each family, and 3 taxa each genus. About 50% of the taxa belong to only eight families; but Gramineae, Compositae and Leguminosae have more than 10% of the taxa each one. Therophytes are the most common life form with the 40.9% of the autochthonous taxa, on the other hand, phanerophytes are the less common with the 8.4% of the taxa. The 52% of the taxa have a Mediterranean distribution, and a scarce 5.5% could be considered as Eurosiberiane distribution. The endemic flora represents the 10% of the autochthonous flora (173 taxa). The chamephytes (37.7%) are the most frequent life form among the endemic, and the therophytes with only the 6.2% are the less common. This disharmony can be found in other Mediterranean areas, according with the characteristic woodiness of the islands flora.