Plant species diversity in different altitudinal ranges of a very moist forest of coastal Eastern ghat in Odisha

Abstract

The present investigation to know the plant species diversity in different altitudinal ranges of a very moist forest of coastal Eastern ghat of Odisha was carried out in Balugaon Range under Khordha Forest Division of Odisha during April 2018- May 2019. Plant species richness and plant species diversity in 3 altitudes (valley, foot hill and mid hill) was investigated using nested sampling method in very moist forest of Rajini - Tamana Reserved forest which is a part of Eastern ghats of coastal Odisha. In the investigation 15 treatments comprised of 5 plant types in combination of 3 altitudes were taken into account. A total of 246 plant species were recorded from the studied site including 110 species of trees, 33 species of shrubs, 53 species of climbers, 38 species of herbs and 12 species of grasses. Elevation wise species composition, Importance Value Index (IVI) of trees, shrubs, climbers, herbs, grasses and Shannon-Wiener index of diversity (H') were found out to know the forest structure and floristic.