Ecologlcal Status of the Montane Grasslands of the South Indian Hills: a Phytogeographic Reassessment

The present paper brings a phytogeographic evidence to show the effect of cold in limiting the spread of "shola" forest in the Nilgiri, Palni and Anamalai. The species of the shola are shown to be of a tropical stock either confined to the Western Ghat, the Deccan Peninsula or to the Indo-Malayan region. On the other hand, the woody species met with in the open grassland landscape have their distribution range extending to the higher altitudes in the Himalayas or to the temperate regions. Whereas the latter are cold-resistant, the former cannot withstand the low temperatures in their early life in an open "eco-climate" and are consequently eliminated. Arguments are advanced for separating the tropical montane climate from the temperate type, on basis of climatic characters and physiognomic, functional and distributional features of the vegetation.