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Medicinal Plant Research 2014, Vol.4, No.3, 18
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Table 2 Total number of plant species and percentage of life-form and leaf size classes of research area
Life-form classes
No. of
species
Percentage
Leaf size classes
No. of
species
Percentage
Therophytes
78
47.27
Microphylls
78
47.27
Chamaephytes
29
17.58
Mesophylls
34
20.61
Megaphanerophytes
26
15.76
Leptophylls
21
12.73
Hemicryptophytes
14
8.48
Nanophylls
19
11.52
Nanophanerophytes
13
7.88
Megaphylls
13
7.88
Geophytes
4
2.42
Parasite
1
0.61
environment. In the investigated area arid conditions,
low temperature in winter, high temperature in summer,
wind and biotic factors result in un-favourable
conditions for therophyte. Saxina et al., (1987) stated
that hemicryptophytes dominated temperate zone in
overlapping and loose continuum. Therophytes
continue in unfavorable condition during seeds
production. The predominance of therophytes in
unstable conditions such as dry, hot or cold met for low
to higher elevation might be the reason for their higher
percentage in the present study.
In this region’s the plant face drought during winter
especially in dry soil. The present study shows that
leptophylls were high at the hilly area while
microphylls and nanophylls were present in plain area.
Species with large leaves take place in warmer wet
climates while smaller leaves are characteristic of cold
and arid climates and degraded habitats. A high
percentage of microphylls might be due to dry climate
in hilly area. Leaf size spectrum of the plant revealed
that microphyllous species followed by nanophylls
species were dominant in the investigated area.
Microphylls are usually characteristic of steppes while
nanophylls and leptophylls are characteristic of hot
area (Khan et al., 2013; Tareen and Qadir, 1993). The
soil was poorly developed with thin sheet that banned
root penetration. Furthermore, roots absorb low
moisture and nutrients under dry conditions. The
species with microphyllous leaves were abundant due
to ecological adaptation for these arid conditions. The
present findings agree with those of Khan (2013) who
reported high percentage of microphylls in the dry
climate of Tehsil Takht-e-Nasratti. These data indicated
that the percentage of various leaf form classes varied
with increasing altitude. Khan (2013) and Khan et al.
(2013) also observed that the percentage of
microphylls was positively linked with the increasing
altitude and this also hold up our findings. According
Dolph & Dilcher (1980a; 1980b) large leaved species
were dominant in tropical wet forest. This difference is
mainly due to climatic variation such as temperature
and wet tropical condition. The situation in our case is
far more xeric than in the wet tropics. The size of
leaves alone could not be used to identify specific leaf
zone or climates. Other features of plants such as habit
and root system might also play important role in
biodiversity. An ecologically operating problem of the
area is grazing, browsing, and trampling by domestic
animals (Figure 3). These elements cause species not to
reach its climax stage. Grazing is one of the depressing
aspects, which has caused the reduction in vegetation
(Khan and Hussain, 2012). In these processes the
Figure 3 Stunting growth of
Accia modesta
due to grazing