Floristic diversity of Koppal District, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Koppal district is popularly known as ‘rice bowl’ of Karnataka and is one of the newly formed districts. Since there are no comprehensive report on floristic diversity of Koppal district till today, hence authors present the first comprehensive report on floristics. This district mostly has rocky terrain on one side and acres of dry land on the other wherein agricultural crops like Jowar, Maize, Chick pea, Redgram, Safflower, Ground-nuts etc. are grown. The survey was carried out during 2016-20 and flora was recorded and plants were collected during all the seasons. The present study reports 430 flowering plant species from this district. Out of 430 plant species, total 57 families were recorded, of which Leguminosae [including Papillionoideae (30), Caesalpinoidaea (23) and Mimosoidaea (20)] the largest family with total 73 species followed by Apocynaceae (27), Malvaceae (22), Asteraceae (20), Acanthaceae and Euphorbiaceae (16), Poaceae (14), Labiatae (12) and other families like Amaranthaceae, Convolvulaceae, Moraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Combretaceae, Rutaceae, Asparagaceae etc. were found to have less species. Dalbergia latifolia, Ficus religiosa , Hardwickia binata, Chloroxylon sweitenia, Syzygium cumini, Bauhinia variegata, Bauhinia racemosa, Ailanthes excelsa, Prosopis juliflora etc. were dominant species found grown in natural habitat throughout the district. Many important medicinal plant species which most of them were herbs and climbers like Abrus precatorius, Achyranthes aspera, Aegle marmelos, Andrographis paniculata, Bacopa monnieri, Gymnema sylvestre, Hemidesmus indicus etc. were found abundant. Aegle marmelos, Ailanthes excelsa, Sygyzium cumini, Dalbergia sissoo, Tectona grandis are cultivated for commercial purposes. Since Koppal district is found to have most of its part a rocky terrain species belonging to Rubiaceae, Apocynaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae, Mimosoideae were predominant, of which most of the species are edible like Carissa spinarum, Zizyphus nummularia, Canthium coromandelianum, Balanites aegyptiaca, Annona squamosa etc. the district also comprises ornamental trees, weedy plants, grasses, hydrophytes including Rare Endangered and Threatened (RET) species like Saraca asoka, Pterocarpus santalinus etc. District has a huge repository of curious medicinal plants which have sufficient accumulation of secondary metabolites and can prove potential resources after scientific bioprospection methods.