OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Floristic enumeration of Torna Fort (Western Ghats, India): a storehouse of endemic plants Mayur D. Nandikar, Priyanka T. Giranje & Durga C. Jadhav 26 June 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 7 | Pages: 11895–11915 10.11609/jot.3705.10.7.11895-11915 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7): 11895–11915 Floristic enumeration of Torna Fort (Western Ghats, India): a storehouse of endemic plants Communication Mayur D. Nandikar 1, Priyanka T. Giranje 2 & Durga C. Jadhav 3 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 1,2,3 Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research, 431, Lawkim Campus, Shindewadi, Shirwal, Satara, Maharashtra 412801, India OPEN ACCESS 1 [email protected], [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected]­­­ Abstract: The forts on hilltops of the Sahyadri (northern Western Ghats) have seen a turbulent historical past and are famous for their architectural style and cultural heritage. Besides this, these hilltops are home to an incredible plant diversity. One of the highest hilltop forts (ca. 1,403m) the Torna, has been explored since 2012 for foral assessment. The study documented ca. 399 plant species of which about 28% are endemic to the Western Ghats and 16 monotypic species were recorded. A brief account of the immense foristc diversity and new fndings from Torna fort are summarized in the present artcle. Keywords: Endemism, hilltop forts, fowering plants, northern Western Ghats. DOI: htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3705.10.7.11895-11915 Editor: Aparna Watve, Biome Conservaton Foundaton, Pune, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 3705 | Received 29 September 2017 | Final received 01 June 2018 | Finally accepted 13 June 2018 Citaton: Nandikar, M.D., P.T. Giranje & D.C. Jadhav (2018). Floristc enumeraton of Torna Fort (Western Ghats, India): a storehouse of endemic plants. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(7): 11895–11915; htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3705.10.7.11895-11915 Copyright: © Nandikar et al. 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author Details: Dr. Mayur D. Nandikar - presently working in the area of plant taxonomy and conservaton as a Scientst and Head at Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research (NGCPR) Shirwal. Ms. Priyanka T. Giranje - research fellow at NGCPR, working in biosystematcs studies on the genus Ledebouria in India and also studying the endemic plants from the northern Western Ghats. Ms. Durga C. Jadhav - research fellow at NGCPR, studying the genus Salacia in India and also engaged in documentaton of local fora from Satara District. Author Contributon: MDN - Project design, proposal, implementaton, plant collecton, photography, data interpretaton, editng. PTG - Plant collecton, endemic plant enumeraton, herbarium preparaton, manuscript writng. DCJ - Plant collecton, data processing, herbarium preparaton, manuscript writng. Acknowledgements: Authors are thankful to Mr. Vijay M. Crishna, Director, Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research (NGCPR) for the consistent support and encouragement and Dr. K.V.C. Gosavi, HPT Arts & KCK Sci. College, Nashik for assistance in grass identfcaton and photographs. We extend our thanks to Dr. Vinod Shimple, Dr. Nilesh Pawar, Dr. Alok Chorghe, and Kishor KC for assistng in the feld tours to the Torna Fort. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers for their critcal comments on the draf and conceptualizing an idea about BHS in the view of conservaton. 11895 Floristc enumeraton of Torna Fort Nandikar et al. INTRODUCTION foristc assessment and endemism is the beginning of this endeavour. India is one of the megabiodiverse countries of the world. It has diverse biogeography, and consists of about 18,000 plant species, which is almost 11% of total METHODS species in the world (Singh et al. 2015). One of the global biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats consist more Study area than 7,400 plant species of which 1,270 are endemic The study was in and around Torna Fort which is (Nayar et al. 2014). Mountain ranges of the northern situated between 18.290597220N and 73.624444440E, Western Ghats are commonly known as Sahyadri. These 18.265163890N and 73.610555560E, covering a study ranges are very diverse in the habitats, fora and fauna. area of ca. 10,000ha. It ranges from the foot of the The northern Western Ghats spreads from Tapt mountain at village Velhe, Pune (750m) to the hilltop (Gujarat) to Goa with an average elevaton of 900m. of Torna Fort situated at 1,403m and about 50km Torna hilltop with an alttude 1,403m is one of the tallest southwest of Pune, Maharashtra (Image 1). Foothill soil peaks in Maharashtra and highest peak in Pune District. is mainly composed of ‘moorum’ (a soil type, comprising It is one of the renowned historical forts, which served small pieces of disintegrated rock or shale) and red soil as the capital of Maratha dynasty for 25 years and lies while slopes have loose red soil, the plateau top has very 50km southwest of Pune City in Velhe Tehsil. shallow soil cover on basalt. Average rainfall during the Hilltop forts in Sahyadri are famous for their six months of monsoon is around 900mm (Maharashtra architectural style, cultural heritage and for being witness State Gazeteer 1992). Torna Fort is frequently visited by to the turbulent historical past. In additon, these forts tourists, trekkers, and nature lovers during the monsoon. and adjoining areas possess specifc habitats like fat Hilltop and slopes are used by local inhabitants for summits, rocky fanks, crevices, precipitous slopes, grazing and collecton of fuel wood. Widening of the which shelter extremely rich plant diversity. Previous tar road have opened a corridor for tourist vehicles up documentaton of these centres of foristc diversity to the middle of the fort and it can be referred to as a includes Sinhagad, Purandar and Khandala (Santapau possible threat to the habitat. 1951, 1957, 1967), Torna Hills, Katraj Ghats and Rajgad Fort (Vartak 1953, 1960, 1965), Harishchandragad Data collecton (Billore & Hemadri 1969), and the enumeraton of Our study is an outcome of contnuous expeditons vegetaton from hilltops near Pune and adjoining areas to the Torna Fort during 2012–2017. Plant materials (Cooke 1901–1908; Razi 1952). Moreover, new species were collected during regular feld visits at diferent and new additons to the state fora have been published seasons. Bridson & Forman (1999) have been followed from these hilltops during the last century. Detailed for herbarium preparatons. The identty of plants was study on the endemism from these hilltops has not confrmed with the help of foras (Cooke 1901–1908; been done so far and therefore, the present study on Lakshminarasimhan 1996; Singh & Karthikeyan 2000, Image 1. Locaton map of Torna Fort. A - Satellite magnifed view from C; B - Terrain view of Torna Fort; C - Satellite view of India ‘ + ‘ denotes the locality ‘Torna Fort.’ 11896 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7): 11895–11915 Floristc enumeraton of Torna Fort Nandikar et al. 2001). The collected specimens have been deposited RESULTS at NGCPR with accession details. Besides this Agharkar Research Insttute, Pune (AHMA) and Fergusson Torna Fort shows a high degree of variaton in College Herbarium, Pune have been consulted for habitats and in vegetaton paterns. The plateau the specimens collected by V.D. Vartak from Torna and plains are covered with grasses, sedges, orchids, and adjoining area. Endemic statuses of plants were scrophulariaceae, legumes and other ephemerals, confrmed by using research publicatons (Tetali et al. Strobilanthes, etc. (Image 2 C & G). Vertcal rocky clifs 2000; Gaikwad et al. 2014; Nayar et al. 2014; Singh et al. are covered with liverworts, mosses, ferns, balsams, 2015). The families have been arranged alphabetcally. lithophytc grasses, Begonias, Senecio edgeworthii Hook. Binomials and nomenclature follows the Internatonal f., etc. (Image 2E). Vegetaton on slopes are dominated Plant Name Index (IPNI 2012). The monotypic taxa have by large number of endemic species, viz., Ceropegia been identfed (Rana & Ranade 2009). Categorizaton