Seasonal Exploration, Identification and Documentation of the Distribution and Abundance of Hydrophytic, marshy and amphibious flora found in Keonjhar district, Odisha, India

Abstract

Vegetation of an area plays an important role in controlling pollution level from the environment. Pollution due to mining is a major threat for open cast mining areas. Keonjhar district of Odisha is one of the polluted areas due to mining. Hence, the objective of this paper is to Seasonal Exploration, Identification and Documentation of the Distribution and Abundance of Hydrophytic, marshy and amphibious flora found in Keonjhar district, Odisha, India using appropriate standard techniques. Data obtained show that Out of which a total of 122 hydrophytic, marshy and amphibious plant species were identified which belong to 41 families. Amongst the genera, Cyperus is dominant having maximum number of species followed by Polygonum, Brachiaria, Fimbristylis and Commelina. So far as the hydrophytic types concerned 12 species are rooted floating, 7 free floating, 4 floating submerged, 2 rooted submerged and the rest 97 species are found to be amphibious. The results also revealed that Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, Salvinia cucullata Roxb. ex Bory, Salvinia molesta D. Mitch., Pistia stratiotes L. and Spirodella polyrhiza (L.) Schleiden are the dominant floating species along with a wild grass namely Typha angustata Bory & Chaub. having a large population in the area under study.