Flora
The flora consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with a tropical climate and around 18,000 islands, Indonesia is a nation with the second largest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and the native species, due to the geography of Indonesia, located between two continents. The archipelago consists of a variety of regions from the tropical rain forests of the northern lowlands and the seasonal forests of the southern lowlands through the hill and mountain vegetation, to subalpine shrub vegetation. There are about 28,000 species of flowering plants in Indonesia, consisting 2500 different kinds of orchids, 6000 traditional medicinal plants, 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of Dipterocarpus, including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood. Indonesia is also home to some unusual species such as carnivorous plants.
Durian (Durio zibethinus L.)
Regarded as the "king of fruits". Durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk.
Salak (Salacca zalacca)
Also known as snake fruit, due to the reddish-brown scaly skin. The fruit inside consists of three lobes, resembles a large peeled garlic cloves. The taste is usually sweet and sour.
Fauna
The fauna of Indonesia is characterized by high levels of biodiversity and endemicity due to its distribution over a vast tropical archipelago. Indonesia divides into two ecological regions; western Indonesia is more influenced by Asian fauna, and the east is more influenced by Australasian. The Wallace Line notionally divides these two regions. It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 wildlife species or 17% of the world wildlife live in Indonesia, even though Indonesia’s land is only 1.3% of the world’s land. Indonesia has the most mammals in the world (515 species) and is inhabited by 1,539 bird species. Other than that, 45% of the world fish live in Indonesia waters.
Orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii)
Habitat: Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatera
The orangutans are the two exclusively Asian species of extant great apes, and currently found in only the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes and spend most of their time in trees.
Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis)
Habitat: Komodo Island, NTT
Predicate the last "dragon" on earth is not an overestimation to describe this animal. Komodo is the largest living lizard with fangs and claws that can rip its prey to pieces.