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| above: The Samoan Archipelago consists of the political independent state of Western Samoa, which includes the both largest islands named Savai'i and 'Uplou as well as several smaller offshore islands, and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the USA. Swains Island is politically a part of American Samoa, but geographically however it belongs to the Tokelau Archipelago and therefore it is not regarded here. All islands of the Samoa archipelago are of volcanic origin. They rise up from a so called 'hotspot', which slides the islands eastwardly. Thus Savai'i in the west is the youngest of the islands, and it is still volcanically active. In the easternmost end of the chain lies the Rose Atoll, its former land mass is now completely eroded, it consists only of coral sand. The flora, especially of the two largest islands, is relative rich in species. Within the polynesian region only the Hawai'i Islands and Fiji harbour more species. The rate of endemic species lies at around 30 %. The genus Sarcopygme of the Rubiaceae family however is the only endemic genus of the archipelago. annotation for pronunciation: g - is vocalized as ng in long ... for more information click on island or name |