Road side flora of Pazhavoor, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, South India

Kensa Mary V.*, Sangeetha M and Lekshmi J. L.

Department of Botany and Research Centre, S.T. Hindu College, Nagercoil -629 002, Tamil Nadu, India.
 
Research Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2018, 04(01), 053–063
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2018.4.1.0051
Publication history: 
Received on 17 June 2018; revised on 13 July 2018; accepted on 14 July 2018
 
Abstract: 
Roadsides are habitats with very specific environmental conditions, often substantially differing from their natural surroundings. However, roads can have a positive effect on local vascular plant species richness. The vegetation of Pazhavoor were surveyed, the Road side flora of, a total of 103 species belongs to 87 genera and 34 families are recorded. Out of 34 families, 13 families belongs to Monocot (Liliaceae, Poaceae, Arecaceae, Ascelepiadaceae etc) and 90 families are Dicots (Malvaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiceae, Meliaceae, Acanthaceae, etc).  Fabaceae is the most dominant family with 12 species. Euphorbiaceae is the second largest families with 11 species followed by Malavaceae (10), Amaranthaceae (9), Poaceae (8), Acanthaceae (7), Asterceae (4), Solanaceae (3), Rubiaceae (2), Vitaceae (1). No endemic species has been found from the study area. The commonly occurring species are Abutilon indicum, Acalphaindica, Barleria sps, Cassia auriculata, Chlorsis barbata, Cocus nucifera, Euphorbia sps, Jatropha curcus, Mollugo nudicaulis, Tamarindus indica, Tribulus terrestris, Tridax prcumbens, Vernoniacinerea. The dominant tree species found are Azadirachta indica, Cocus nucifera, Ficus religiosa followed by Tectona grandis. Among the total 103 species, 12 are trees, 22 shrubs, 64 herbs and 5 climbers. More over 96 species are wild and 7 species are cultivated. Seeds is used to propagate 103 plant species, 2 species by seeds/stem cutting, 3 species were propagated using their bulbs, 2 species were propagated by stem cutting, Rest of the plants propagated using their different plant parts (bud, corm, Rhizome, seed, tubers). In this study environmental conditions and propagules maturity etc were found key factors for their regeneration. These results show that roadside vegetation can contribute to the conservation of the flora of study area.
Keywords: 
Climbers; Flora;, Natural; Regeneration; Vegetation; Roadsides
 
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