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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Angiosperm diversity in Bhadrak region of Odisha, India Taranisen Panda, Bikram Kumar Pradhan, Rabindra Kumar Mishra, Srust Dhar Rout & Raj Ballav Mohanty 26 February 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 3 | Pages: 15326–15354 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4170.12.3.15326-15354 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2020 | 12(3): 15326–15354 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4170.12.3.15326-15354 #4170 | Received 01 April 2019 | Final received 30 January 2020 | Finally accepted 07 February 2020 C o m m Angiosperm diversity in Bhadrak region of Odisha, India u n i Taranisen Panda 1 , Bikram Kumar Pradhan 2 , Rabindra Kumar Mishra 3 , c 4 5 a Srust Dhar Rout & Raj Ballav Mohanty t i 1,2 Department of Botany, Chandbali College, Chandbali, Gopalpur Post, Bhadrak District, Odisha 756133, India. o 3,4 n North Orissa University, Sri Ram Chandra Vihar, Takatpur, Mayurbhanj, Baripada, Odisha 757003, India. 5 Retred Reader in Botany, Plot No. 1311/7628, Satya Bihar, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751010, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected], 5 [email protected] Abstract: We present the informaton about angiosperm species in Bhadrak District of Odisha, India. In so doing, we assess the state of foristc knowledge across ecoregions of the district and pinpoint our understanding of the district fora. This study is frst of its kind conducted in the district showing current status of the angiosperm diversity. A total of 383 species (262 natve species and 121 non-natve species) belonging to 282 genera under 93 families are recorded as per APG III classifcaton. These taxa are distributed in 12 superorders and 39 orders; 26.7% of the natve species were reported from the superorder Fabids, 20.6% from superorder Malvids, 19.8% from superorder Lamids and 15.6% from superorder Commelinids. One hundred and twenty one non-natve species were represented in 12 superorders. Natve species of the order Fabales (35), Poales and Lamiales (27) each, Malphigiales (18), Malvales (14), Gentanales (13), Carylophyllales and Solanales (12) each and Myrtales and Sapindales (11) each, account for about 68.7% of the species in the district. Eighty one non-natve species belong to these orders. The analysis of the plant species based on growth habits showed highest proporton of herbs followed by trees, shrubs and climbers. Some of the reported species are used for the treatment of various ailments and also for edible purposes. Plant species diversity, distributon and populaton structure provide baseline informaton for conservaton and sustainable management of available resources. Keywords: Biofencing, foristc inventory, invasive species, medicinal plants, vegetaton. Editor: P. Lakshminarasimhan, Botanical Survey of India, Pune, India. Date of publicaton: 26 February 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Panda, T., B.K. Pradhan, R.K. Mishra, S.D. Rout & R.B. Mohanty (2020). Angiosperm diversity in Bhadrak region of Odisha, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(3): 15326–15354. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4170.12.3.15326-15354 Copyright: © Panda et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Taranisen Panda has interest in plant taxonomy, ethnobotany and biodiversity assessment. Bikram Kumar Pradhan has interest in plant taxonomy and ethnobotany. Rabindra Kumar Mishra has interest in plant taxonomy, ecology and biodiversity assessment. Srustidhar Rout has interest in plant taxonomy, ethnobotany and biodiversity assessment. Raj Ballav Mohanty has interest in plant taxonomy and ethnobotany. Author contributon: TP carried out the foristc study, collected the data and wrote the manuscript. BKP, SDR, RKM and RBM identfed the species, interpreted the data and designed the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the fnal manuscript. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the local healers concerned for sharing theirtraditonal knowledge for documentaton and photography. 15326 J TT Angiosperm diversity in Bhadrak region Panda et al. INTRODUCTION in Hooker &Thomson’s Flora Indica (1855). Hooker (1897) refers to the stray collectons from Odisha. The structure, compositon, and vegetatve functons Haines’ The Botany of Bihar and Orissa (1925) and its are most signifcant ecological atributes of a partcular supplement by Mooney (1950) and Gamble’s Flora ecosystem, which show variatons in response to of the Presidency of Madras (1936) are the pioneer environmental as well as anthropogenic variables works before independence. Afer independence, many (Timilsina et al. 2007; Gairola et al. 2008; Shaheen et al. foristc works have been published, thus contributng 2012). Major threats to ecosystems and biodiversity are signifcantly to the foristc diversity of Odisha. Numerous habitat loss &fragmentaton, overexploitaton, polluton, publicatons (Jain et al. 1975; Saxena 1976, 1978; Behera invasions of alien species, and global climate change et al. 1979; Brahmam & Saxena 1980; Mishra et al. 1983; (IUCN 2003) with disrupton of community structure. Choudhury 1984; Choudhury & Patanaik 1985; Dubey & The anthropogenic pressures, heavy grazing, and the Panigrahi 1986; Das et al. 1994) either as district foras natural calamites have led to degradaton of natural or checklists of plants of diferent areas in the state have habitats of many species. Such practces are discouraging been brought out. Saxena and Brahmam’s The Flora of the natve species and promotng the hardy non-natve Orissa published in 1996 is the most comprehensive and species having litle value for the local ecosystem (Pant authentc work on the foristc diversity of this region. & Samant 2012). Floristc inventory and diversity Recently, Reddy et al. (2007) and Sahu et al. (2007) made studies help to understand the species compositon signifcant contributon to the fora of Odisha. A perusal and diversity status of a region (Phillips et al. 2003), of literature, however, reveals that there is a lack of base which also ofer vital informaton for conservaton line informaton on the foristc compositon of Bhadrak (Gordon & Newton 2006). Quanttatve inventories, District of Odisha. Hence this study was undertaken to moreover, help identfy species that are in diferent explore the angiospermic diversity of the region along stages of vulnerability (Padalia et al.2004) as well as the with its multfarious uses in rural areas. This study will various factors that infuence the existng vegetaton in allow further evaluaton of district’s current conservaton any region (Parthasarathy 1999). The fowering plants status and contribute to the fora of coastal Odisha. of India comprise about 15,000 species under 2,250 genera and 315 families and represent 6% of the world’s known fowering plants (Nayar 1977). At present there MATERIALS AND METHODS are18,666 species of angiosperms found in India (Mao & Dash 2019). According to Irwin &Narasimhan (2011), 49 Study site angiosperm genera are endemic to India. At present 58 Odisha is the ninth largest state of India by area and genera & 4,303 taxaof angiosperms are endemic to India the eleventh largest by populaton. With the Eastern (Singh et al. 2015). Ghats range of hills almost passing through the heart of Odisha, a state of ancient land and temples lying the state, high Similipala hills on its north and around between 17.49N to 22.34N lattude and 81.27E to 482km of coast line on its east, Odisha has varied 87.29E longitude is situated on the eastern coast of the ecosystems from marine to semi-arid on the west, Indian peninsula. Bordered on the north by Jharkhand, which provides ‘niches’ for diverse animal and plant on the west by Chhatsgarh, on the south by Andhra communites (Patnaik 1996). The vegetaton found