Abstract:
Endemic plants represent a small but important part of the flora of
Gujarat; still they have not been assessed for their status till date. The
present estimate is first of its kind that encompasses all Indian
endemics found in Gujarat state that is based on literature review and
field surveys. The present findings revealed documentation of 192
Indian endemics, with dicotyledons dominating the endemic flora with
137 taxa (71%) belonging to 97 genera under 33 families, whereas
monocotyledons represented by 55 taxa (29%) belonging to 37 genera
under 9 families. There are seven species which are exclusively
endemic to Gujarat state that are Helichrysum cutchicum, Ischaemum
sayajiraoi, Rorippa cochlearioides, Solanum purpureilineatum,
Spodiopogon aristatus, Tamarix kutchensis and Tephrosia
jamnagarensis. Top five families contribute 57% of the total Indian
endemics reported from Gujarat; Fabaceae has the largest number
(31), which is followed by Poaceae (27), Acanthaceae (20),
Asteraceae (12) and Orchidaceae (10). An analysis of the life-form
types shows that endemic herbs (66%) dominate the study area,
followed by shrubs (12%), trees (11%), climbers (6%), undershrubs
(3%) and climbing shrubs (2%). Analysis on the district-wise
distribution of Indian endemics shows that the Dangs has maximum
number of Indian endemics with 115 taxa, followed by Valsad (104),
Narmada (71), Junagadh (63) and Panchmahal (57). In conclusion, the
present study demonstrates that endemics are mostly concerted in
southern Gujarat region; they are primarily herbaceous; while some of
them are known with just a few additional collections.
