INTRODUCTION

The tropical rain forest is the most complex eco­ system on the earth. It is the richest of all ecological communities in terms of number of species of all types of groups within the plant Icingdom viz; higher angiospermic plants, epiphytes, parasites, bryophytes, lichens, etc.

Many closely related species are found in the same general area although each species is represented by only a small number of individuals (Richards, P.W., 1973). Since the past, the tropical forest has been an important source of knov/ledge about nature and the human environment.

These tropical rain forests still remain the largest scientifically unexplored regions of the world. Even among those species that have been named and described from these regions; we know virtually very little or almost nothing about their biological characteristics. In addition to this, these forests are retreating very fast. In 1975, the following estimates of cumulative destruction of tropical forests were made by the FAO and UNESCO : 2 Original area of Tropical : 16 million km . Rain Forest (World) 2 Area in 1975 : 9.36 million km . (Reduction of 41.5%) - 2 -

The rate of destruction of these forests is greater

than that of the temperate forests. If this destruction is

continued with the same rate, many interesting taxa may

disappear before there is even a record of theirexistence.

India being situated in the tropics, has a typical

tropical .flora. The tropical rain forests exist at Andaman-

Nikobar Islands, North-East and of South

India (Map 1). All these forests are already explored and

are still being explored for their higher angiospermic flora

and mycoflora. Lichen flora of these forests of the Western

Ghats was not studied till 1973.

Since 1973, Department of Mycology of the

Association for the Cultivation of Science, Pune, has started

exploring the Western Ghats of India for lichenized fungi.

Based on the results of the work done under the National

Science Foundation, U.S.A., funded research project "Lichens

of Western India" accounts of the lichen families Usneaceae

and Physciacsae (Rairkar, 1976, unpublished), Parmeliaceae

and foliicolous lichens (Prabhu, 1976, unpublished), Graphi-

daceae and Thelotremataceae (Kulkarni 1977, unpublished),

Pyrenocarpous lichens (Makhija 1978, unpublished) were

prepared. Nagarkar (1975, unpublished) worked on lichen

flora of Mahabaleshwar. - 3 -

An extensive and rapid survey in the Western Ghats showed that several parts in the North Canara (Devimane

Ghat/ Yellapur, Siddhapur forest) and South Canara (Mudi- gere, , Karakkal, Coorg) are richer in relics of old primary broad leaved woodlands that have been relatively ]ert.‘

■ modified by forestry and agricultural techniques than in any other parts of India. These forests because of humid microclimate and continued presence of well developed evergreen trees still retain finer assemblages of epiphytic and lignicolouH lichens often v/ith excellent representation of old world tropical species and even endemic elements

(Patwardhan, 198i).

Tropical rain forests exist on the hill tops and ravines in the Western Ghats. This chain of hill ranges runs through the seven districts of the state. Most of the lichen collections were made in these districts. Remaining

12 districts (namely Bijapur, , , ,

Bellary, Dharwar, Chitradurg, Tumkur, Kolar, Bangalore,

Mandya and Mysore) have fertile agricultural land and moist deciduous to dry deciduous forests. Hence lichens were not collected in these districts.

I have had an opportunity to work under the research project "The lichens of tropical rain forests of

State" sponsored by Council of Scientific and Industrial - 4 -

Research, India, and operated at the Department of Mycology,

M.A.C.S.Research Institute, Pune from 1980 to 1983. The present thesis is based on the results of the floristic v/ork

done under the project. The primary objectives of this project were to 1) make a floristic survey of lichens of

the existing, endangered, evergreen rain forests in the

Karnataka State and 2) to record lichen specimens before

they are lost.

GEOGRAPHY OF KARNATAKA STATE:

Karnataka State shows a great variation in the climate

and geography. It lies between 11° 5' N (B.R.Hills), and

IS^ 00' N (Nandi Hills) latitudes and 74° 2' E () and

80° 35' E (Nandi Hills) longitudes. The altitudes vary from

250 m () to 2075 m (Kudremukha).

The annual average rainfall in the state ranges from

750 cm 'In the Western Ghats to about 37.5 cm in the Eastern

and north eastern parts of the state. The average annual

rainfall in the state is about 118 cm. The zone of heavy

rainfall (150 cms.and over) extends from Coorg district to

North Canara districts over a belt of 48 - 80 kms along the

Western Ghats.

CLIMATE;

Karnataka state has tropical climate. The

year can be broadly divided into three seasons viz., the cold - 5 -

season from December to February which is generally free from rains; the summer season from March to May, v/ith rcare. thunder showers especially in the latter and hotter part, and the monsoon season from June to November of which

South-west monsoon extends from June to September, account­ ing for the bulk of the total rainfall and the north-east post and retreating monsoon period from October to November.

The climate is mild in the plateau region. The-relative humidity in the Western Ghat area is comparatively much higher than in the table land.

SOILS:

The soils of the state are divided into 5 main groups

(Roychaudhary ^ 19 63) .

1) Coastal alluvium; It is limited to the narrow flat belt adjoining the sea. These soils are sandy v;ith very low clay or organic matter content.

2) soils: Mainly found in the area to the east of coastal alluvium. These soils exhibit a loamy or clayey surface with a lot of pellet concretions of varying thickness followed by laterite horizons. These soils are acidic and poor in plant nutrients.

3) Red soils: Mainly found in the southern part.

These soils may be rich, gravelly, pale brown or red sandy - 6 -

loam type, with their colour varying from place to place depending on presence of hydrated oxides of iron.

4) Mixed red, yellow and grey soils; These are generally sedentary soils. The texture of the surface soils varies from stony to sandy in the pale yellow to light red

soils; .from loamy to clayey in the light red to deep red; and grey groups. Their pH varies from 6.5 to 7.5. They are poor in nutrients.

5) Black soils: Mainly found in Bijapur, Gulbarga,

Bidar, Belgaum, Dharwar and Raichur districts. These have high clay content and v/ater holding capacity. Their pH ranges from 7.5 to y.5. These are very fertile being well

supplied with plant nutrients.

VEGETATION;

The vegetation is diverse ranging from the tropical wet evergreen forests to scrub jungles. The wet evergreen forests are seen at altitude ranging from 600 - 1000 m on the windward side of the south-western ghats. These are the

forests where lichens grow luxuriantly. The altitudinal distributions of the trees varies remarkably from the ghat- crest region to the interior even within a range of 5 to 8 km.

The floristic composition reveals some common elements with

the Indo-Malaya rain forests but are markedly different from the rain forests of Eastern India. As one passes from

North Canara southwards; the constituents and density of the evergreen or semi-evergreen species vary with increase in rainfall. Though the evergreen forests of Shimoga,

Chikmanglur, Hassan and Coorg show more or less similar components yet the floristic composition is markedly dissi­ milar to that in .

At altitudes of 1200 - 1800 m or more, the hill tops exposed to the high velocity of the winds during the south west monsoon have stunted trees and in the sheltered valleys occur shola type vegetation. With decreasing altitude the vegetation gradually changes into evergreen wet-deciduous to dry-deciduous to scrub forests.

The vegetation is generally divided into three parallel north-south zones or belts on the frequency of rain­ fall as follows-

I. The evergreen belt: This stretches along the

Western Ghats and situated in the region of heavy rainfall with a mean of 250 cmsor more per annum. This can be sub­ divided into two - 1) The moist evergreen belt -a very narrow belt along the and covering the mountainous country with deep ravines and narrov/ valleys. Its main - 8 -

components are Dipterocarpus indlcus, Calophyllum apetalum,

C. elatum, Hopea wiqhtiana, H. parviflora/ Holiqarna

arnottlana. Plea dioica, Lophopeltalum wiqhtianum, Polyalthia

Coffeoides, Persea macrantha, - Artocarpus hirsutum etc.

2) Mixed belt of evergreen and deciduous forest - The rain­

fall varies from 150 - 2 50 cms. The main deciduous trees are

Terminalla panlculata, Dlospyrous sp., Laqerstromla mlcro-

carpa, Elaeocarpus serratus, Mailotus phlllppensls, Ixora

arborea etc.

II. The deciduous forest belt: The rainfall In this area Is

75 - 100 cms. The chief species seen is Tectona qrandls

while the other deciduous components are Grev/la fillifolla,

Laqerstromla microcarpa, Kydla calycina, Dalberqia latitolla.

Terminall a crenulata, T. panlculata, T. alata. Bombax ceiba,

etc.

III. Dry deciduous fuel tract and scrubs: It has a rainfall

as low as 35 - 75 cms. This has xerophytlc plants along with

some bamboos, in addition to the deciduous species. Its

main components are Tectona qrandls, Anoqeissus latlfolia,

Sterculia u r e n s , Acacia chundra, Dalberqia latlfolia, Dio-

spyros tomentosa, Hardwlckia blnata, Haldlna cardifolla,

Alblzla amara. Cassia fistula, , and Gmelina

arborea etc. Still poorer lands support scrub forests only, - 9 -

v;hich may be sometimes composed of only Euphorbia antic/uorum,

E. tjrucalli, Dodonaea viscosa. Cassia auriculata, etc.

These divisions and subdivisions gradually merge into each other in the above order (Sharma B.D. et 1984).

The ravines in the Western Ghats are locally called as "Sholas". These sholas are favourable habitats for a good vegetation because all the trees are equally exposed to rain and sunlight. Foliose and fruticose lichens along v/ith the corticolous lichens are found to gro^v luxuriantly in these sholas.

THREATENED FLORA:

The vegetation of Western Ghats; as that of rest of

India; is subjected to continuous exploitation. The forest acreage has shrunk drastically and flora is depleting. It is essential to protect the vanishing, floristically interesting species before it is too late. Biosphere reserves and con­ servation steps are an urgent necessity.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT of the work done on lichens in the

Karnataka state.

Even though the first report of an Indian lichen.

Lichen fuciformis L. (= Rocella fuciformis (Lj Dc.) appeared as early as in 1753 (Linnaeus 1753); it took exactly 199 years for first report of lichen from Karnataka state. Santesson, R. - 10 -

(1952) reported two foliicolous lichens, which were collected by Meebold from Mysore. These were 1. Pornia epiphylla F^e and 2. Striqula nitidula Mont.

In his paper on Usnea, Asahina (1969) reported a single species Usnea leucospilodea from Mysore which was collected by Motyka.

The pioneer of lichenology in India, D r .-D.D.Awasthi had so far reported only three species of lichens from

Karnataka (Awasthi D.D. 1950, 1976) namely, Anaptychia leucomelaena (L.) Vainio collected in Mysore, Parmelia austrosinensis Zahlbr. also from Mysore and Parmelia marqa- ritata Hue collected in Dharwar district.

The major contribution to the knowledge of lichens from Karnataka came after 1974. Dr. Patwardhan & his associates reported 95 lichens from different localities in

Karnataka. Patwardhan and C.R.Kulkarni published 47 species of the family Graphidaceae and Thelotremataceae. 12 of them were new species (1976, 1977a, 1977b, 1977c, 1979a, 1979b,

1979c). Patwardhan and Prabhu described 5 species of the family Parmeliaceae (1977a, 1977b). comprising two new species. Patwardhan and Rairkar (1979) reported five species of the genus Anaptychia. Patwardhan and Makhija (1980) described 3 species of Anthracothecium; one species each of the genera Cryptothecia, Arthothelium and Helminthocarpon - 11 -

(1981a); 4 species of Lopadium (1981c). Out of these 10 speciesj 6 v;ere the new species. Makhija and Nagarkar (1981b) described one new species of the genus Megalospora. Patwardhan,

Makhija and Rane (1980) published 1 species each of the genera Campylothelium, Lithothelium and Pleurotrema. Prabhu,

Nagarkar and Patwardhan recorded 22 species of the family

Parmeiiaceae (1984).

COLLECTING LOCALITIES;

Collections of lichenized fungi were made in the rain forests existing near and around the following places. (Map 2)

District Places

1. Belgaum ; , Londha

2. Karwar : Yellapur, A rm e l Ghat, Sirsi, ,

Siddhapur, Hosar Ghat, Devimane Ghat

3. Shimoga : Sagar, Talguppa, Humcha, Agurnbe,

Tirthahalli, Shimoga.

4. Chikmag lur : , Balehonur, Koppa, Mudigere,

Kemmungundi, Kudremukh, Bababudangiri

Hills.

5. Mangalore : Udipi, Hebri, Someshwar, Hiriyadka,

Karakkal, Charmudi Ghat.

6. Hassan : Sakaleshwar, Belur.

7. : Talcauvery, Bagmandal^ Mercara,

Nagarhole, Somwarpeth. - 12 -

Besides the above localities, lichens were also collected in the moist, evergreen reserve forests of

Bandipur wild life sanctuary, Nandi Hills and part of the Biligiri Rangan Hills.

I have had an opportunity to examine a part of

Prof.'S.R.Panchgavi's collection from Karnataka state. He collected lichen specimens during 1953 to 1965. But he did not publish the result of his studies. Those specimens which I studied are at present deposited in the Ajrekar

Mycological Herbarium.