The flora of Bhopal, its analysis and reassessment
Shaukat Saeed Khan*
Department of Botany and Microbiology, Saifia Science, College, Bhopal-462001 (India)
ABSTRACT
The present paper deals with the floristic analysis of the Oommachan's, "The Flora of Bhopal (Angiosperms)" published in 1977. It is a very useful treatise on the subject and has filled the lacuna of systematic studies in the field of floristics (Confined exclusively to Angiosperms) of this area. According to him there are 121 families of dicots incorporating 436 genera and 688 species, whereas the number of families, genera and species of monocots is 27, 108 and 148 respectively. Among dicots herbs dominate with 45.24% species followed by trees (22.89%), shrubs (13.93%), climbers (11.86%) and undershrubs (6.06%). Likewise among monocots 78.94% of the species are herbaceous followed by trees (8.55%), shrubs (6.57%), climbers (5.26%) and undershrubs (0.65%). He has also recorded 39 species of exotic plants which are included in the above statistics. He has reported both wild and ornamental /cultivated plants. Among the dicots 46 out of 119 families exclusively comprise of ornamental/cultivated plants i.e. 38.65% families and do not represent wild plants. In monocots only one family i.e Pandanaceae has 100% cultivated status followed by Araceae with 50% wild plants and rest ornamentals. Since the publication of the said flora a number of developmental activities have taken place, resulting in the vanishing of the preexisting species from some sites and addition of new species, both indigenous and exotic.