The Pathanamthitta District consists of three natural divisions viz., the lowlands, midlands, and highlands. The topography of the district is highly undulating with hills and valleys. The vegetation is divided into 3 categories such as lowland vegetation, midland vegetation and upland vegetation. The flora presents a systematic account of a total of 1249 species belonging to 658 genera of 148 families of seed plants. The species index is registered as 460/1000 sq. km. which is comparatively very high and indicates the richness of the floristic diversity of the district. Seven new species and two new verities have been discovered from th4 district. An analysis of the flora showed formed 22% of the total species. About 200 species are rare, and 175 are severely threatened; most of which are local endemics. A total of 90 wild relatives of cultivated crop plants have been collected. Each species is provided with detailed up-to-date nomenclatural citations including synonyms if any, descriptions, phenology, distribution, and notes on ecology, nomenclature, uses, etc., if any. Illustrations of good quality of 59 species are also provided. The comprehensive floristic account will be of immense use to the botanists, agriculturists, nature conservationists, ethnobotanists, and to all the scientists working in other allied disciplines.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR M. Sivadasan
Dr. M. Sivadasan, M.Sc., Ph.D., FBS, FIAT, Department of Botany, university of calicut is currently the Chair of Taxonomy (Plant Science) nominated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India. His specialization is ni Plant Taxonomy, Floristic and Biodiversity Conservation, with special interest in Araceae. He has more than 100 research publications and 5 books to his credit. Dr. Sivadasan Functioned as the Tresurer and Vice-President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT). He was the Executive Editor of Rheedea, the official journal of the IAAT. Curently he is the Secretary of IAAT. Dr. Sivadasan is a member of the Conservation Breeding Specialists Group (CBSG) of the SSC of the IUCN, and was a Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR N. Anil Kumar
Dr. N. Anil Kumar, M.Sc., Ph.D., FIAT, Principal Scientist, M.S. Swamination Research Foundation, Chennai is basically a systematic botanist. He made extensive field studies and ethno-botanical explorations in Western Ghats and Peninsular India. Presently his special interest is in agro biodiversity and has contributed much to the knowledge of this subject especially that pertains to the tribal and rural folks of kerala. Currently he is working as head of the Community Agro-biodiversity Centre of the M.S. Swaminathan research Foundation at Kalpetta, Wayanad district, Kerala and is spearheading the activities related to conservation, enhancement and sustainable and equitable use of agrobiodiversity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR N. Ravi
Prof. N. Ravi was the head of the Department of Botany, S.N. College, Kollam, Kerala and on retirement worked as Emeritus Scientist at the Tropical Botanic Garden and Reaserch Institute, Palode, Thiruvanathapuram. He continued research in floristics, and during his research career successfully completed work on five research projects sponsored by agencies like the University Grants Commission, Botanical Survey of India, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India) and CSIR, new Delhi. He has described about 31 new species of plants. Prof. Ravi has about 35 research articles and one book to his credit.
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