Enumeration of Fabaceae Vegetation in Plains of Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Maintenance, management and sustainable utilization of plant coverage have required scientific recognition. The information resulted from vegetation can be useful to solve the ecological problems such as biological conservation and natural resources management and the future of an ecosystem trends can be forecasted using such information. The study presents the survey of Fabaceae flora in the plains of Tirunelveli district during 2006–2009. About 58 species belonging to different habitats have been recorded. The present work enumerates eight numbers of tree species, 15 subshrubs, 8 shrubs, 16 herbs and 11 climbers belonging to 26 genera. The ground herbaceous flora is rich during rainy season. The present communication deals with 22 Indian medicinal plants belonging to 17 genera, used in Siddha and Ayurveda drug preparation.

Keywords: Fabaceae, flora, Tirunelveli, medicinal plants