Floristic composition and life form classes of district Shangla, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/03/2016
Views (294) Download (24)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

Floristic composition and life form classes of district Shangla, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Sultan-Ud-Din, Habib Ahmad, Haidar Ali, Hamid Ali
J. Bio. Env. Sci.8( 3), 187-206, March 2016.
Certificate: JBES 2016 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

The present study was conducted in order to explore the floristic composition and life form classes of district Shangla, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. Floristic survey of district Shangla was conducted from 15 March 2011 to 5 November 2013 to collect information’s concerning the flora of district Shangla. The flora of district Shangla consist of 515 plant species belonging to 101 families. The plants explore belong to 113 annual herbs, 227 perennial herbs and 38 biennial herbs. The taxanomicaly investigated shrubs were 89 species and trees were 48 species. The well-represented families were Asteraceae contributing 63 taxa, Labiatae 31, Rosaceae 26, Ranunculaceae 23, Papilionaceae 18, Brassicaceae 17 and Polygonaceae 10 taxa. The life form spectrum showed that the most dominant life form class was Therophyte with maximum number of 222 species (43.3%) followed by Phanerophytes with 137 species (26.8%), Chamaephytes with 56 species (10.92%), Cryptophytes with 50 species (9.85%), Hydrophytes 28 species (5.44%), Geophytes 12 species (2%), and Hemicryptophytes 10 species (1.98%) respectively. The present study reveals that the study area is diverse in its floristic composition having varieties of life form classes. The dominant Therophytic life form shows that the flora of the area is under sever anthropogenic activity. Phenarophytes occupy second position in life form, which shows that the area is occupied by stratified thick forests. However, the forests of the study area are under sever threat of deforestation and erosion thus protective measures should be adopted for the conservation of the precious flora of the study area.

VIEWS 34

Ali SI. 2008. Significance of flora with special reference to Pakistan: Pakistan Journal of Botany 40(3), 967-971.

Amjad MS. 2012. Life form and leaf size spectra of vegetation in Kotli Hills, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan). Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2(7), 345-350.

Badshah LF, Hussain sher Z. 2013. Floristic inventory, ecological characteristics and biological Spectrum of rangeland, district Tank, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany 45(4), 1159-1168.

Batalha MA, Mantovani W. 2001. Floristic composition of the Cerrado in the Pé-De-Gigante Reserve (Santa Rita Do Passa Quatro, Southeastern Brazil). Acta Botanica Brasilica 15(3), 22-30.

Cain SA, Oliveria D, Castro GM. 1959. Manual of Vegetation Analysis. Harper & Brothers, New York.

Costa C, Araujo FS, Lima-Verde LW. 2007. Flora and life form spectrum in an area of deciduous thorn woodland (caatinga) in northeastern Brazilian Journal of Arid Environ 68(2), 237-247.

Hadi F, Naseem M, Shah SM, Asadullah Hussain F. 2009. Prevalence and ecological characteristics of summer weeds in crop and vegetable fields of Botanical Garden Azakhel, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Plant Sciences 15(2), 101-105.

Hussain F. 1989. Field and Laboratory Manual for Plant Ecology. University Grants Commission, Islamabad.

Hussain MI, Perveen A. 2009. Plant biodiversity and phytosociological attributes of Tiko Baran (Khirthar Range). Pakistan Journal of Botany 41(2), 581-586.

Ibrar M. 2003. Conservation of Indigenous Medicinal Plants and their Traditional Knowledge found in Moist Temperate Himalayas Pakistan, PhD thesis Department of Biological Sciences/ Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad.

Khan M, Hussain F, Musharaf S, Imdadullah. 2011. Floristic composition, life form and leaf size spectra of the coal mine area vegetation of darra Adam khel, khyber pakhtonkhwa, Pakistan. Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences 1(3), 1-6.

Khan M, Hussain F, Musharaf S. 2013. Floristic Composition and Biological Characteristics of the Vegetation of Sheikh Maltoon Town District Mardan, Pakistan. Biotechnology annual review 3(1), 31-41.

Malik ZH, Hussain F, Malik NZ. 2007. Life form and Leaf Size Spectra of Plant Communities Harbouring Ganga Chotti and Bedori Hills during 1999-2000. International Journal of Agriculture and Biology 40 833–838.

Malik ZH, Hussain F. 1990. Phytosociology of some parts of Kotli Hills, Azad Kashmir. Journal of Science and Technology 14, 117–123.

Masroor R. 2011. An Annotated Checklist of Amphibians and Reptiles of Margalla Hills National Park, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Zoology 43(6), 1041-1048.

Muller DB, Ellenberg H. 1974. Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology p: 547. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Nurminen L. 2003. Macrophyte species composition reflecting water quality changes in adjacent water bodies of Lake Hiidenvesi, SW Finland. Annals of Botanic Fenneci 40, 199-208.

Qureshi R. 2008. Preliminary floristic list of Chotiari Wetland Complex, Nawab Shah, Sindh, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany 40(5), 2281-2288.

Qureshi R. 2009. Floristic Inventory of University Research Farm at Koont and its surrounding areas. Final technical report funded by Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Qureshi R, Bhatti GR. 2010. Floristic inventory of Pai Forest, Nawab Shah, Sindh, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany 42(4), 2215-2224.

Rahmatullah Q, Ahmad M. 2010. Some notes on the vegetation of Achhro Thar (white desert) of Nara Region, Sindh, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany 42(5), 2985- 2994.

Rashid A, Swati MF, Sher H, Al-Yameni MN. 2011. Phytoecological evaluation with detail floristic appraisal of the vegetation arround Malam Jabba, Swat, Pakistan. Asian Pac J of Trop Biomed 1(6), 461-467.

Raunkiaer C. 1934. The Life Forms of Plants and Statistical Plant Geography. Clarendon Press Oxford.

Shah M, Hussain F, Shah SNM, Ahmad I, Wasila H. 2013. Life form and Floristic Characteristics along Altitudinal Gradient of Humid Temperate Forests Located in Remote Area of Pakistan. Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management 3(2), 276-281.

Shimwell DW. 1971. The Description and Classification of Vegetation Sedgwick and Jackson, 322 p. London.

Tareen RB, Qadir SA. 1993. Life form and Leaf size spectra of the plant communities of diverse areas ranging from Harnai, Sinjawi to Duki regions of Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany 25(1), 83-92.

Xueli C, Halin Z. 2003. Plant production and diversity at desertification stages in Horqin Sandy grassland region, China. In: Conserving Biodiversity in Arid Regions. (Eds.): Lamons, J., R. Victor and D. Schaffer. Kluwer academic Publishers.