Floristic Studies on Herbaceous and Grass Species Growing in the University of Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Rapid loss in flora diversity, changing patterns of vegetation and land use patterns in the University of Lagos Akoka campus has necessitated investigation on the herb and grass species so as to determine their compositions, structures and diversity within the area. Twenty sampling plots of 10m x 10m each were studied in five selected locations using random sampling. The samples were counted and identified using Flora of West Tropical Africa. A total of 75 taxa (herbs = 53 spp and grasses = 22 spp) belonging to 26 families and 64 genera were recorded in the area. Of all the families, Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae had the highest number of species with seven species of herbaceous plants each. The Simpson index value was highest in locations A and D (0.98), Shannon index value was highest in location A (3.96); while evenness value was highest in location E (0.92). Among the herbs, Asystasia gangetica had the highest importance index value (40.22%), while Panicum maximum had the highest importance value (34.87%) among the grasses. The results revealed restricted distribution of the species in specific areas probably due to development of infrastructural facilities in the study area. It is recommended that the species with low importance values should be given priorities in terms of conservation policies for future purposes by planting them and protecting their habitats.

Keywords: Conservation; Species composition; UNILAG flora; Urbanization;