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Medicinal Plant Research 2014, Vol.4, No.3, 18
-
29
http://mpr.sophiapublisher.com
18
Research Report Open Access
Classification of Plant Species in Tehsil Katlang, District Mardan, Khyber
Pakhtunkhawa, Pakistan
Musharaf Khan
1
, Farrukh Hussain
2
, Faridullah
3
, Shahana Musharaf
4
1. Department of Botany, Federal Government College Mardan, Pakistan.
2. Department of Botany, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Pakistan.
3. PCSIR Labaritries Peshawar, Pakistan.
4. Department of Chemistry, G.G.D.C. Sheikh Maltoon, Mardan, Pakistan.
Corresponding author email: k.musharaf@gmail.com;
Authors
Medicinal Plant Research, 2014, Vol.4, No.3 doi: 10.5376/mpr.2014.04.0003
Received: 17 Feb., 2014
Accepted: 24 Feb., 2014
Published: 28 Feb., 2014
Copyright
© 2013 Khan et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Khan et al., 2014, Classification of Plant Species in Tehsil Katlang, District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Pakistan, Vol.4, No.3 18-29 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.
2014.04.0003)
Abstract
The study was designed to classify the plant species on the basis of different aspect. The plants were classified into
different life form and leaf size classes. The flora consisted of 165 plant species belonging to 124 genera and 54 families. Asteraceae
and Poaceae are the dominant families. The biological spectrum explains that therophytes (78 spp., 47.27%) were the dominant
followed by chamaephytes (29 spp., 17.58%). In leaf size classes the microphylls (78 spp., 47.27%) were dominant followed by
mesophylls (34 spp., 20.61%). Analysis of the study reveals the phytoclimate to be of therophytic type. The domination of
therophytes indicates that the investigated area is under deep biotic stress.
Keywords
Flora; Growth habit; Life spa
Background
The Tehsil Katlang lies from 32
0
06
'
to 32
0
21
'
North
latitudes and 61
0
46
'
to 62
0
25
'
East longitudes. It is
bounded on the north by swat district, on the east by
district of Buner, on the South by mardan city of
district Mardan and on the west by Tehsil Takht Bhai.
The total area is 1098573km. The research area is very
fertile. It is a great sate of Gandhara remains. It may
broadly be divided into two parts, the North-East hills
and the South-West plains (Figure 1). The entire
northern side of the research area is bounded by the
hills. The summer season is extremely hot. A steep
rise of temperature is observed from May to June.
During May and June, dust storms are frequent at
night. Due to usual cultivation and irrigation, the
environment is humid. The relative humidity is quite
high throughout the year while maximum humidity
has been recorded in August. Maximum temperature
(41.50
0
C) and rainfall (125.85mm) are recorded in
June and August Respectively (Khan et al., 2011d).
Taxonomists are naturally interested to record flora of
diverse geographical areas. Since very long time many
attempts have been through by different workers in
searching away Flora of our dear native soil, Pakistan.
The effort of both Pakistani and Foreign Taxonomists
is basic approach. Different workers have worked in
different parts of Pakistan still when it was part of
United India. The area under discussion is typically
unfamiliar and very a small number of reports are
originated (Khan, 2004; Khan, 2007; Parveen et al.,
2008; Qureshi, 2008; Hussain et al., 2009;
Muhammad et al., 2009; Qureshi and Bhatti, 2010;
Khan et al., 2011a; 2011b; Khan et al., 2011c; Khan,
2013). Biological spectrum of vegetation is the index
of the phytoclimate of the site, deduction of which is
based on diverse life-forms composing the flora of the
site. The life-form in its turn is the ultimate
manifestation of the sum of all the adap-
tations undergone by a plant to the climate
in which it resides. Raunkiaer (1934) proposed the
term “Biological Spectrum” to express both the
life-form distribution in a flora and the phytoclimate.
Oosting (1956) stated that the leaf size knowledge
may help out in the accepting of physiological
processes of plants. Khan (2013) stated that in testing