International Research Journal of Plant Science

Biodiversity of angiospermic climbers of daund tahsil from pune district (M.S.), India

Bagal JG^* Department of Botany, E.S. Divekar College, Varvand, Pune, India
^*Corresponding Author:
Bagal JG, Department of Botany, E.S. Divekar College, Varvand, Pune, India, Email: bagaljg72@gmail.com

Received: 01-Nov-2021 Published: 16-Dec-2021, DOI: http:/dx.doi.org/10.14303/irjps.2021.33

Introduction

Climbing plants i.e. climbers, twiners and lianas are important components of vegetation. Climbers are plants rooted in the ground but need support for their weak stems (Richards, 1952). A plant species which cannot withstand on itself due to weak stem and takes support of other plants or objects to continue its growth and ascending up to trap the solar energy is considered as a climber. A liana is a woody climber that generally has roots in woodland or forest floor but its leaves often in full sun, blanketing canopies of trees, often many meters from the ground. All these climbing elements having various morphological forms including climbers, twiners and lianas are components of vegetation and play a crucial role to maintain the diversity of the particular area. The climbers in the wild generally utilize the neighboring plants as external supporting structures to ascend (Den & Oosterbeek, 1995). The early and somewhat sound classification of climbers is that of Schimper (1903), who categorized them into scrambles, root climbers, twiners and tendril climbers.

India is having richest biodiversity in the world. The Flora of India is consists of 47513 plant species of all groups and 18117 flowering plant species. (Arisdason & Lakshminarasimhan, 2019). India is also known as a mega-diversity center among 12 in the world .Vegetation may be described as the plant life of a region. India, one of the 12 megacentres of origin of cultivated plants is also one of the richest centers of biodiversity (Kohli et al., 2004). Environmental condition supports the diversity of different plant species. The current study focuses on documentation of Biodiversity of plants especially climbers of Angiosperms in Daund Tahsil from Pune Disrtict (Maharashtra State), India.

Daund Tahsil lies in Pune district situated on the margins of ‘Bhima’ river. Geographically this region extends from 18º18' to 18º41' North Latitude and 74º07' to 74º51' East Longitude Figure 1. The geographical area of the study region is 1289.86 Sq. Km. (128986 hector) according to 2011 census. The average height of study area is 554 meters from mean sea level. The river ‘Bhima’ and its tributary rivers ‘Mula’, ‘Mutha’ are dominating drainage pattern in study region. Agriculture is predominant in Daund tahsil and it provides livelihood to 66.93 % population.

In different part of India studies on diversity of climbers were undertaken by a number of workers. The earlier studies on the climbers of the different regions of the country have been made by different workers, Baro and Borthakur, Climbing Angiosperms of Manas National Park, Assam: Diversity and Ethno botany (2017); (Gakhare Pankaj et al., 2016). Diversity and distribution of Angiospermic climbing plants of Nagpur City, Maharashtra (2016), (Padaki & Parthasarathy, 2000); Abundance and distribution of lianas in tropical lowland evergreen forest of Agumbe, central Western Ghats, India (2000), (Sateesh et al., 2014). The Climbing Plants of Nothern Telangana in India and their ethno medicinal and economic uses (2014) etc.

Materials and Methods

The exploration of the area under study includes the planned study tours to various places for collection of climbers in study area. It was carried out during 2017-2020. Several daily and seasonal field tours were made to cover the entire Daund Tahsil. Flowering and fruiting specimens were collected and field observations on habit, habitat, color of flower, local name etc. were noted. After completing the plant specimen collection from study area, herbariums of collected specimens were prepared (Jain & Rao 1978; Diane & Leonard, 1998). Close up of flowering/fruiting material and habit along with associated plants were photographed. Special attention was paid to collect the plants from different areas and as far as possible all localities have been covered during all seasons. Extensive field work, exploration and collection of plants were carried out in different seasons. Identification of collected specimens was made with the help of relevant literature.

The laboratory work was mainly in the form of comprised the correct identification of collected specimens. The specimens were identified with the help of published flora like Flora of British India, Hooker (1898), Flora of presidency of Bombay, Cooke (1958), The Flora of the Maharashtra state; Monocotyledons, Sharma et al. (1996), Flora of Maharashtra Vol–I to IV , Almeida and Almeida (2001, 2003). Flora of Maharashtra State; Dicotyledons Vol–I, Singh and Karthikeyan (2001), Flora of Maharashtra state Dicotyledons Vol-II, Singh et al. (2001). Flora of Kolhapur District, Yadav, and Sardesai (2002), ‘Flora of Baramati’, Bhagat et al. (2008), Flora of Khandala on the Western Ghats of India, Santapau (1953), Flora of Purandar, Santapau (1958), Botanical collectors’ manual, Santapau (1958) etc.

Names of the plants specimens were searched concerning with the different herbaria especially Herbarium of Botanical Survey of India (B.S.I.), Western Circle, Pune, Herbarium, Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Agharkar Herbarium of Maharashtra Association (AHMA), Agharkar Research Institute (A.R.I.) Pune. The herbarium specimens of the collections have been deposited at the Herbarium, Department of Botany, E.S. Divekar College, Varvand, Tal- Daund, Dist- Pune (M.S.) India.

Discussion

Biodiversity is the capital asset of a nation and form the foundation upon which the human civilization are built. Biodiversity offers several direct and indirect economic benefits to human kind. Among different groups of plants, flowering plants play an important role and will continue to play major role in shaping the word’s civilization (Yadav, 1997). Cultural, economic and overall development of a particular region is largely depends on the careful exploration, utilization as well as conservation of its natural resources

The present investigation enumerates plants of Angiospermic climbers in Daund Tahsil provides detailed information about 73 climber taxa belonging to 53 genera and 23 families. From the data it is concluded that, out of total 730 species of flowering plants in the study area (Bagal et al., 2012), the number of Angiospermic climbers is 73 species and it is of 10 %. This data generate baseline information for further research work. The survey of Biodiversity of Angiospermic climbers of Daund Tahsil from Pune district of Maharashtra state, India at regional level would be a good source of importance on technical and taxonomic data. The findings of the survey will be helpful to identify threats to biodiversity.

Therefore assessment and documentation of biodiversity have become an urgent need of the day. There is an urgent need of repeated floristic studies to access biodiversity to know the changes in the floristic composition of region in time and space.

Plant wealth of a region is regarded as an important & valuable natural resource. However, this diversity is under great pressure due to anthropogenic activity such as deforestation, habitat destruction, various developmental activities etc. Therefore we should know the status of biodiversity in a particular area in general and incorporate the actual status. Documentation of diversity of plants especially climbers of Angiosperms in Daund Tahsil from Pune Disrtict (Maharashtra), India will be great significance to recognize present status of floristic diversity in the area. The findings of the survey will be helpful to identify threats to biodiversity.

References

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Results

The work embodied in this communication is the result of three years collection of Angiospermic climbers from different localities in Daund Tahsil from Pune District, Maharashtra, India. The present investigation revealed that total climbers include 73 species, 53 genera belonging to 23 families of Angiosperms. Out of 73 species, 71 species, 51 genera and 21 families are belonging to Dicotyledons (97.26 %), while only 2 species, 2 genera and 2 families are of Monocotyledons (2.74%) Table 1. The family Cucurbitaceae (16 Species), Convolvulaceae (13 Species) and Fabaceae (7 Species) are dominant families of climbers in Daund tahsil. Genus Ipomea is the largest genera with seven species Table 2.