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PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS 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, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) 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 Observations on the flowering plant diversity of Madayippara, a southern Indian lateritic plateau from Kerala, India C. Pramod & A.K. Pradeep 26 February 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 2 | Pages: 17780–17806 DOI: 10.11609/jot.3883.13.2.17780-17806 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. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2021 | 13(2): 17780–17806 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3883.13.2.17780-17806 #3883 | Received 03 May 2020 | Final received 30 December 2020 | Finally accepted 09 February 2021 COMMUNICATION Observatons on the fowering plant diversity of Madayippara, a southern Indian lateritc plateau from Kerala, India C. Pramod 1 & A.K. Pradeep 2 1 Department of Botany, Government Brennen College, Dharmadam P.O., Kannur, Kerala 670106, India. 2 Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Calicut University P.O., Malappuram, Kerala, 673635, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Abstract: Northern Kerala of southern India is characterized by widely spread lateritc plateaus which provide an extremely harsh physical environment for life leading to the development of specialized plant communites with a large number of endemic and habitat specifc species. Madayippara, a midland lateritc plateau located in the Kannur District of northern Kerala is an icon of rich foristc diversity and endemism. The plateau forms a number of microhabitats due to the diference in geographic terrain and soil cover, thus forming a complex of habitats with diverse forms of plants, mainly ephemeral herbs. Out of the 636 fowering plant taxa recorded from the microhabitats of the plateau, within a limited area of 3.65km2, 160 (c. 25%) are endemics. Most of the endemic species occur in specialized microhabitats. The plateau is the type locality of 11 taxa. Lateritc plateaus of southern India, which are associated with characteristc and rich biodiversity, are now under varied types of anthropogenic threats such as large scale mining for bricks and clay, and they need urgent atenton for conservaton of the biodiversity. Keywords: Biodiversity, conservaton, endemism, foristc diversity, microhabitats, plateau. Editor: Mandar Nilkanth Datar, MACS-Agharkar Research Insttute, Pune, India. Date of publicaton: 26 February 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Pramod, C. & A.K. Pradeep (2021). Observatons on the fowering plant diversity of Madayippara, a southern Indian lateritc plateau from Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(2): 17780–17806. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3883.13.2.17780-17806 Copyright: © Pramod & Pradeep 2021. 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: The present study did not receive any funding from any agency. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: C. Pramod is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany, Government Brennen College, Thalassery. His area of interest is Angiosperm taxonomy and foristcs. A.K. Pradeep is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany, University of Calicut. His area of interest is the taxonomy of fowering plants. Author contributon: CP and AKP designed and conceptualized the study. CP collected specimens and data for analysis, CP and AKP performed analysis of data. CP and AKP prepared the frst draf of the manuscript and equally contributed in further editons. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the heads of the Department, University of Calicut, Kerala and the Department of Botany, Government Brennen College, Kerala, for the facilites provided for the study. 17780 Flowering plant diversity of Madayippara, Kerala Pramod & Pradeep J TT INTRODUCTION In India, the hard crusts of laterite are mainly found on the western coast, from Dapoli in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra to Malappuram District in Kerala, and also on the Deccan Plateau (Balakrishnan et al. 2011). Distributon of laterite in Kerala, is mostly confned to an elevaton of less than 600m, forming low fat topped ridges and hills, between the foothills of the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, mainly from Malappuram to Kasaragod (Varghese & Byju 1993). In the geographical documentaton of the Government of Kerala these landscapes are marked as ‘wastelands’ (Anonymous 2019). The laterite hills are the most imposing feature of northern Kerala, which are extremely threatened both in terms of topography and biodiversity (Muraleedharan 2011). These plateaus are characterized by extremely harsh environment such as high temperature and lack of moisture content in the summer, leading to the development of unique vegetaton, many of which show special adaptaton to the environment. These severe conditons play a decisive role in the development of seasonal vegetaton, where most of the plant species complete their life cycle during the monsoon period. When compared with granitc inselbergs (granitc rock outcrops), the vegetaton and fora of lateritc plateaus Image 1. Madayippara (From Google Earth). has many unique peculiarites. The present study is an efort to record the foristc diversity and endemism of the Madayippara lateritc hillock in Kannur District of vegetaton along the valleys were surveyed repeatedly Kerala. at diferent seasons and specimens were collected for laboratory studies and for the preparaton of voucher Study Area specimens. Photographs of plants and habitats were taken Madayippara, a good representatve of the southern using Nikon Coolpix L110 and Olympus C-7070 cameras. Indian midland lateritc plateaus, is located in Madayi The voucher specimens were prepared following the Panchayath, near Payangadi Town in Kannur District of wet method (Fosberg & Sachet 1965). The specimens Kerala, southern India. The plateau covers an area of were pressed in blotng paper, dried in a hot air oven, 3.65km2, between 12.01–12.05 0N and 75.23–75.27 0E, mounted on standard size, hand-made herbarium mount at an alttude of about 50m from the mean sea level (Fig. boards using a synthetc gum (Fevicol SH) and labeled 1; Image 1–3). The climatc conditons vary from hot dry and deposited at Calicut University Herbarium (CALI), to warm humid in diferent seasons, viz., pre-monsoon duplicates of which are deposited at the herbarium of (March–May), monsoon (June–November), and post- the Government Brennen College, Thalassery, Kerala. monsoon (December–February); these together The specimens collected for laboratory studies were with edaphic factors account for the development of worked out using a LEICA M80, ZEISS Stemi DV4 and characteristc vegetaton, as observed by Muller (2007). LABOMED CSM2 microscopes and identfed using pertnent foras and relevant revisions and monographs; Methods and by comparison with the specimens available at Intensive feld visits were carried out at Madayippara Calicut University Herbarium (CALI), Madras Herbarium lateritc plateau covering all seasons during the period (MH) and with the images in the Kew Herbarium (K) 2008–2017 to document foristc diversity. Diferent Catalogue (htp://apps.kew.org/herbcat/navigator.do). microhabitats on the plateau such as seasonal pools, Some of the specimens were referred to concerned soil covered areas, rocky surfaces, and tree associated experts in India and abroad for the confrmaton of Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2021 | 13(2): 17780–17806 17781 J TT Flowering plant diversity of Madayippara, Kerala Pramod & Pradeep RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The vegetaton of Madayippara lateritc plateau is divided into four broad categories with the characteristc fora associated with each of them (Jacobi et. al. 2007, modifed). The plant species in the microhabitats are adapted to sustain in the adverse environmental conditons, such as seasonal drought, high temperature and nutrient scarcity. It has been observed that there is an overlap between most of the species in microhabitats with varying degree of dominance, as stated