Herbaceous species diversity in Veerani Aloor , Kanyakumari district , Tamilnadu , South India

Herbaceous plant species are important components of ecosystems. Herbs are variable in their presence as well as presence of certain chemical compounds in their body system. Floristic studies acquire increasing importance in recent years in response to the need of developing and understand and under developing countries to assess their plant wealth. Total 54 plant species belonging to 20 families and 48 genera were recorded from the study site. Out of 54 plants, 54 were angiosperms. The contribution of dicotyledons was 98% and monocotyledons 2%. Acanthaceae was the most dominant family with 6 species and 6 genera and other main contributing families were Amaranthaceae (7 species and 6 genera), Euphorbiaceae (6 species and 4 genera), Apocynaceae (5 species and 5 genera), Capparaceae (3 species and 3 genera) and Malvaceae (3 species and 3 genera). The most dominant life from was wild (87%) followed by ornamental (12%) and cultivation (2%). The dominance of plants from Poaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Apocynaceae families in the study site, supports the harsh environmental conditions especially the water stress, because these plants have made morphological, anatomical and a physiological modifications to overcome the drought conditions. Dominance of Papilionaceae shows that these areas are nutrient deficient especially nitrogen.


Introduction
Herbs are major components of plant diversity and are an important segment of global biodiversity.These are also remarkable for their presence in wide range and for a major source of medicine and aroma for human beings.Herbs are variable in their presence as well as presence of certain chemical compounds in their body system.Among a mega diversity of the plants some herbs are of significant medicinal as well as a source of aromatic values.The composition of herbaceous vegetation varied according to the climate and land use conditions.According to [1], herbs are usually small tender plants, lacking of woody stems above ground.Floristic studies acquire increasing importance in recent years in response to the need of developing and understand and under developing countries to assess their plant wealth [2].The aim of the present research was to explore and assesses the Plant diversity especially herbaceous plants in Veerani village.This study is helpful to evaluate the plant species diversity in the selected area.

Description of the study area
Veerani village area is selected for a present study.It comes under Aloor town panchyat.It is situated just about 8km from Nagercoil municipality.The total area of this village is approximately 80 acres.These areas occupy nearly 800-900 people.These people mainly depend on construction works, agricultural works for job and income.In olden days these areas are had a thick vegetation and other cultivation.But now a days the vegetation are destroyed by human activities for building houses, schools, temples, ponds, marriage hall and parks.These people destroyed huge amount of trees used for firewood purposes.In recent days they are affected by different climatic factors (i.e.) low rainfall, high temperature and other seasonal variations etc.So naturally the vegetation is slowly destroyed.This study shows the latest survey of herbs in this area.

Floristic survey
Present survey was conducted in the plant species growing in their natural habitats like grounds, roadsides, open land gardens.Plant specimens were collected (depending upon their availability) from the area under investigation.These specimens were identified and photographed.Maximum plants have been photographed in their natural habitat whereas others in the laboratory conditions.All species have been designated to their corresponding families.Plant species were also differentiated on the basis of their habit.Herbarium sheets were prepared and documented.Identification was done with the help of different floras [3][4][5].

Results and discussion
Total 54 plant species belonging to 20 families and 48 genera were recorded from the study site (Table 1).Out of 54 plants, 54 were angiosperms.The contribution of dicotyledons was 98% and monocotyledons 2% (Table 2).Acanthaceae was the most dominant family with 6 species and 6 genera and other main contributing families were Amaranthaceae (7 species and 6 genera), Euphorbiaceae (6 species and 4 genera), Apocynaceae (5 species and 5 genera), Capparaceae (3 species and 3 genera), Malvaceae (3 species and 3 genera) (Table -4).The most dominant life from was wild (87%) followed by ornamental (12%) and cultivation (2%) (Table 3).A number of workers have drawn attention towards the threatened plants of India from time to [8].In the recent years an increasing attention has been paid on the conservation of rare and threatened species especially on medicinal plants through ex-situ and in-situ practices.The indigenous knowledge is an important tool for study of natural resources that has enormous potential to facilitate development process in cost-effective and sustainable ways.In governs almost all important productive resource sectors and revolves around traditional values of resource use.The local inhabitants and the forest dwellers have their own knowledge about the utilization and conservation of plant which passes from generation to generation so it is important to record such knowledge from these people for proper assessment and conservation to the benefit of mankind.
Conservation of natural resources is a matter of vital interest to man from ancient time India is playing an important role in the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable development through its own biological diversity act and rules.The biodiversity has become such an important challenge to the whole world that it has invented attention from various disciplines, people as well as all quarters of the world.There is a strong need to conserve over exploited species due to large scale of their uses and collection from natural habitats.It is showed that documenting indigenous knowledge through ethno botanical studies is important for the conservation of biological and cultural diversities.This makes a great threat to the survival of many wild species and the ecosystems which are of great economic value to the mankind.
The herb community of tropical forests is very little known, with few studies addressing its structure quantitatively.
Even with this scarce body of information, it is clear that the herbs are a rich group, comprising 14 to 40% of the species found in total species counts in tropical forests.This stratum remains an underappreciated aspect of forest ecosystems.The documentation and classification of this unique and often neglected vegetation community may enable efforts to be made for biological conservation [9].The problem is that due to over collection and climate change several species are fast disappearing.The dominance of families of Poaceae, Fabaceae, Cyperaceae, and Malvaceae in all study areas reflects that these families are the most frequent in Savanna herbaceous vegetation in West Africa.The Poaceae family is well represented, as grasses are the largest family of vascular plants in Savannas.The difference in herbaceous vegetation composition is related to the dual effect of climate and land use conditions.Climate conditions explain the difference in species composition between different climate zones.
Land use causes differences in species composition within a climate zone.Indeed, human disturbances influence composition and distribution of plant species.Patterns of species richness and cover are determined by multiple environmental factors (climate change and human activities) .Generally, local species richness and diversity of Savanna ecosystems are maintained by dynamic interactions between local colonization from species pools at larger spatial scales and local extinction due to competitive exclusion.The frequency of herbaceous species is more influenced by the interaction between climatic conditions and land use regimes than their separate effects.In fact, the distribution of herbaceous species is principally affected by climate, which determines geographical affinity and land use, which affects the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation and influences ecosystem processes.This results in the fact that a species which is the most frequent under a given climate and land use condition becomes rare under other climate and land use conditions.

Conclusion
At present time, several of the important plant species are on verge of depletion, therefore such type of studies shall be paid serious attention for future prospects and to understand the use pattern in terms of sustainability and conservation Sustainability of forest ecosystem is an essential component of the environmental conservation efforts and any degradation of forest.It is also observed that successful strategies for management of useful species would be beneficial for future prospects.

Table 1
List of plant species recorded from the study area

Table 2
Cotyledon wise distribution

Table 3
Percentage of plant species under wild/cultivated, ornamental categories

Table 4
Dominant and least family