A floristic study on herbs and climbing plants at Puducherry, South India: an approach to biodiversity conservation and regeneration through eco-restoration

A qualitative floristic exploration with life form classifications and monitoring of flowering and fruiting phenology has been carried out at a restored site near Puducherry, South India in 2009 and 2010. The species were classified into three categories based on their occurrence status, namely, Naturally Occurring, Naturally Regenerated and Introduced. The present study focuses only on two life forms, the Herbaceous and the Climbing plants. The site selected for eco-restoration originally comprised of an eroded and severely degraded landscape with scattered remnant species. However, active human intervention over a thirty year period included the introduction of appropriate plant species and other physical measures to enhance soil fertility and ground water level, and regenerate and conserve the deteriorating typical Tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) vegetation. A large number of naturally ccurring herbaceous, climbing species (172) and a consistent number of naturally regenerated species (44) are now observed as a result of eco-restoration. Lowland herbaceous species have also established themselves as a green cover at ground level. At present, parts of the area have fertile soils and rich floristic composition with the herbaceous life form represented by 165 species encompassed in 105 genera and 37 families, and the climbing plants represented by 68 species belonging to 54 genera and 25 families. ‘Genus to family’ and ‘species to genus’ ratios indicate the establishment of diverse vegetation in the study site. Nearly one third of the species have been observed flowering throughout the year and about half of the species were observed fruiting throughout the year. We emphasize that the two fold approach of land and vegetation reclamation has been very effective in helping restore the unique TDEF vegetation at the local level and the same may be extended to help regenerate and conserve the Coromandel Coastal vegetation at the regional scale

Plantae, Myrtales, Memecylaceae, Memecylon macrocarpum Thwaites (1864): Distribution extension and geographic distribution map

The genus Memecylon L. has a paleotropical distribution, with about 300 species in the World, and about 30 in India. In this note we report the distribution extension of Memecylon macrocarpum Thwaites based on our diversity inventories in tropical evergreen forests at Uppangala in the Western Ghats, India. Additional distribution records of the species at Courtallum and Malayator were taken from the herbarium of the French Institute of Pondicherry (HIFP). This study highlights the importance of quantitative ecological inventories in determining species distributions and also confirms a greater range of occurrence of this species

Leaf classes, foliar phenology and life forms of selected woody species from the tropical forests of central and southern Eastern Ghats, India

A checklist of selected woody species of Angiosperms is provided with the aim of classifying their life forms, foliar phenology and leaf classes from the tropical forests of central and southern Eastern Ghats, India. Though there are checklists available for the plants of the Eastern Ghats, a comprehensive listing of quantitative foliar measurements as done in other parts of the world, leading to valuable inputs for Plant Functional Type (PFT) classification, has not thus far been done for this key biogeographic zone of India. The list, gathered from 388 individual plants through the study area, encompasses 156 species and 3 infraspecific taxa which belong to 116 genera and 50 families. Of the total 159 taxa, 83 are evergreen and 76 are deciduous. 135 taxa are trees, 13 are shrubs 10 are climbing shrubs and one hemiparasite. Among the leaf classes of species, mesophyll dominated with 87 species, followed by notophyll (39), microphyll (24) and macrophyll (9). Hence, quantitative leaf trait measurements for selected woody species and the methodology for such studies in the tropics is the unique contribution of the present paper to the existing state-of-the-art

Dynamics of tree diversity in undisturbed Evergreen forest at Uppangala, Central Western Ghats

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