Woody Plants Species Diversity Of Home Garden Agroforestry In Three Agroecological Zones Of Dilla Zuria District, Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Trees, shrubs, herb and grasses are the basic components of the home garden agroforestry systems in Ethiopia and have been practiced for a long time. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate woody plants species diversity of home garden agroforestry in three agroecological zones of Dilla zuria district in Gedeo zones. Quadrant of 20×20m was laid down in selected sample sites of the farm plots. Species abundance; numbers of individuals for each species and altitude data were recorded. From these plots a total of 3311 trees and shrubs belonging to 39 species of 35 different plant genera and 25 plant families were recorded. The most species rich families were Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae and Boraginaceae. Other plant species representing climbers and herbs were recorded growing together with trees a-nd shrubs. Two plant association: Mangifera indica Psidium guajava and Eucalyptus globules w-ere recognized from the out of TWINSPAN. The five most frequent tree species in Dilla zuria home garden AF systems were Millettia ferruginea, Coffea arabica, Croton macrostachyus, Vernonieae amygdalina and Persea americana. The species richness in Qolla, Weyna Dega and Dega was 24, 23 and 17, respectively. Qolla agroecology had high species diversity (0.84) as compared to Dega (0.71) and Weyna Dega area (0.68). The overall Shannon- wiener diversity and evenness of trees and shrubs species in the study sites were 0.74 and 0.56, respectively.