he flora of the Philippines is composed of at least 13,500 species which represent five percent of the world's flora. The ferns and fern allies, gymnosperms and agiosperms constitute 22.5 percent of the Malesian and 3.88 percent of the world's vascular flora.

Twenty-five genera of the plants are endemic to the Philippines. Among these are the Rubiaceae family (four genera), the Asclepiadaceae and Orchidaceae (three each), the Melastomataceae, Loranthaceae, Zingiberaceae, and Sapindaceae (two each) and Compositae, Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosae, Rutaceae and Urticaceae (one each), and two endemic fern genera. Nineteen of these are monotypic.

Among flowering plant families, the Orchidaceae, Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Myrtaceae andMoraceae have the greatest number of indigenous and endemic species, while Graminae, Liliaceae, Ulmaceae, Leguminosae, and Rutaceae have lower endemism.

The gymnosperms are poorly represented with only 33 species and 18 percent endemism while there are 1,011 species of ferns and fern allies with 30 percent endemism. Recorded are about 506 species of mosses with 23 percent endemism. Liverworts and hornworts number to 518 species while more than 700 species of fungi and 790 species of lichens are on record. A further 5-8% of the country's flora are believed to be still unidentified.