South Indian Journal of Biological Sciences

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

A Preliminary Taxonomic Study on the Major Grasses of Low Altitude Grassland of Thrissur


Affiliations
1 Department of Botany, St. Thomas’ College (Autonomous), Thrissur, Kerala, India
 

Perumala Hill station of Thrissur, which we selected for the study, is peculiar for its geographic isolation from nearby areas, and no other nearby hill stations are present. These grass hills are about 103 m. of maximum elevation and 25 acre area. It is protected by worshiping old temple. We got attracted to the place also because of its classic scenic beauty of grasslands. Firing the land is an annual custom they following for years. Although the dominant grass species of the land flourish there year after year. Many rare plants like Habenaria diphilla, Habenaria marginata, Exacum tetragonum, Ophioglossum etc are seen there. To get an awareness about the dominant species of this area, we conducted quadrate studies, calculated Shannon's and Simpson's indices. From the plant list derived from the data in the decreasing order of density, grasses are found to be the major plants of this area. Taxonomic analysis of 7 major grasses was conducted from this area. Among this, Heteropogan contortus found to be having most density among them. Seasonal and climatic variations are very common in the grass species. H. contortus also shows such variation in this area. Arundinella mesophylla an endemic species reported from South India. This plant also found in this small area. The awn movements of A. Mesophylla and Eulalia trispicata are found interesting. The flourishing of grass species in this area due to fire resistance. The fire escaping mechanisms of this dominant species are the submerged rhizome, well developed seed dispersal mechanism and seasonal reappearance etc.

Keywords

Low Altitude Grassland, Perumala, Themeda, Arundinella, Aristida, Eulalia, Heteropogon, Pennisetum.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Alfred BR. (1979). Classification of flowering Plants Vol. I - Gymnosperms and Monocotyledons, Second Edition, Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd., U.P.

  • Cooke T. (1903). Flora of Presidency of Bombay, Vol. 1-3. BSI, Calcutta.

  • Duthie JF. (1960). Flora of Upper Gangetic plain. Gouranga Press Pvt. Ltd., Calcutta.

  • Ecological Sampling Method (http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/howto.html)

  • Gamble JS. (1936 – 1915). The Flora of the Presidency of Madras, Adlard & Son Ltd., London.

  • Harini N. (2002). Opposite trends in response for the Shannon and Simpson indices of landscape diversity. Applied Geography,

  • Hooker JD. (1872-1897). The Flora of British India, Vol. 1-7. Reeve & Co., London.

  • Huthchinson J. (1959). The Families of Flowering Plants Vol. II, Monocotyledons, Oxford At The Clarendon Press.

  • International Plant Names Index (IPNI) (http://www.ipni.org).

  • John E. (1938). Weaver and Frederic E. Clements, Plant Ecology McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, New York and London.

  • John H. (1963). Kenneth, Hendersons’ Dictionary of Biological Terms Longman Publishers.

  • Kerkhoff (2010). Measuring biodiversity of ecological communities. Ecology lab Biology, 229.

  • Manilal KS, Sivarajan VV. (1982). Flora of Calicut. Bishen singh Mahendrapal singh, Dehradun.

  • Mathew KM. (1999). Flora of Palni Hills, South India. The Ranipat Herbarium, Thiruchirapalli.

  • Mitra RL, Jain SK. (1980). On The Identity of four grasses in Hortus Malabaricus, Oxford and IBH Publications Company, 149-158.

  • Pradeep AK, Sunil CN. (1999). Two new species of Tripogon (Poaceae) from India. Sida, 18 (3), 809- 814.

  • Rai Bahadur K, Ranga A, Tadulinga Mudaliyar C. (1921). A handbook of some South Indian grasses, Indian Agricultural Service, Agricultural College, Coimbatore, and Fellow of The Madras University.

  • Saldanha CJ. (1984). Flora of Karnataka. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi.

  • Sasidharan N. (2012). Flowering Plants of Kerala. Version-2, KFRI, Peechi, Kerala.

  • Schleuter D, Daufresne M, Massol F, Argillier C. (2010). A user's guide to functional diversity indices. Ecological Monographs, Ecological Society of America.

  • Sherry AL. (2003). Comparison of Vegetation Sampling Procedure in a Disturbed Mixed-Grass Prairie. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science, 83, 7-15.

  • Sreekumar V, Nair VJ. (1990). Flora of Kerala – grasses botanical survey of India, Coimbatore.


Abstract Views: 225

PDF Views: 2




  • A Preliminary Taxonomic Study on the Major Grasses of Low Altitude Grassland of Thrissur

Abstract Views: 225  |  PDF Views: 2

Authors

Franklin Francis
Department of Botany, St. Thomas’ College (Autonomous), Thrissur, Kerala, India
Anto Puthur Varghese
Department of Botany, St. Thomas’ College (Autonomous), Thrissur, Kerala, India

Abstract


Perumala Hill station of Thrissur, which we selected for the study, is peculiar for its geographic isolation from nearby areas, and no other nearby hill stations are present. These grass hills are about 103 m. of maximum elevation and 25 acre area. It is protected by worshiping old temple. We got attracted to the place also because of its classic scenic beauty of grasslands. Firing the land is an annual custom they following for years. Although the dominant grass species of the land flourish there year after year. Many rare plants like Habenaria diphilla, Habenaria marginata, Exacum tetragonum, Ophioglossum etc are seen there. To get an awareness about the dominant species of this area, we conducted quadrate studies, calculated Shannon's and Simpson's indices. From the plant list derived from the data in the decreasing order of density, grasses are found to be the major plants of this area. Taxonomic analysis of 7 major grasses was conducted from this area. Among this, Heteropogan contortus found to be having most density among them. Seasonal and climatic variations are very common in the grass species. H. contortus also shows such variation in this area. Arundinella mesophylla an endemic species reported from South India. This plant also found in this small area. The awn movements of A. Mesophylla and Eulalia trispicata are found interesting. The flourishing of grass species in this area due to fire resistance. The fire escaping mechanisms of this dominant species are the submerged rhizome, well developed seed dispersal mechanism and seasonal reappearance etc.

Keywords


Low Altitude Grassland, Perumala, Themeda, Arundinella, Aristida, Eulalia, Heteropogon, Pennisetum.

References