Pteridophytes of Daman and Adjoining Areas,Makwanpur District, Central Nepal

Abstract

From the present study, a total of 128 specimens of Pteridophytes belonging to 24 families,47 genera and 85 species were recorded from Daman and adjoining areas, Makwanpur district. The species are found to occur within the elevational range of 700 m to 2500 m.Based on the collection and number of species it represents 15.91% of the total Pteridohyte Flora of Nepal. Though the study is mainly focused in Daman, with few visits to the adjoining areas, this effort sums up 35 species as the new records from the Makwanpur district, when compared tothe species reported by Phuyal et al. (2011). Based on the number of species and genera, Polypodiaceae is the largest family followed by Pteridaceae. Among the total 47 genera with 85 species,Pterisis the largest genera with six species, followed by, Selaginella with five species. Other large genera are Cheilanthes, Dryopteris,Huperzia,Lepisorus, Pichisermollia with four species each. Three different habitats were identified from the present study. On the basis of habitat,out of 85 species of pteridophytes 42 species(37%)were found in terrestrial habitat, 46 species(41%)as lithophytes and 25 species (22%) as epiphytes. Apart from these three distincthabitats there are some species which are found in more than one habitat. Only one species Nephrolepisauriculata occurred in terrestrial habitat as well as an epiphyte and lithophyte,while there are species which are found both as lithophytes or terrestrial, or some species as epiphytes or lithophytes. Six distinct forest types have been distinguished, among which mixed forest is much more diversified than any other forest type. Species richness is highest at the altitudinal range of 2200 m to 2400 m. Terrestrial habitat holds more number of pteridophytes and epiphytes are few in numbers. Thirty species of economically important pteridophytes were recorded. Among them fivespecies of pteridophytes were used as food and two species were used as fodder, twelve species of pteridophytes had medicinal value and three species of pteridophytes hadornamental value. Pteridium revolutum, Pteris wallichiana, Nephrolepis auriculata and Gleichenia giganteaare preferred to plant for preventing landslides. While Rhizome of Drynaria mollis and Oleandra wallichii is another major source of income for local peopleas huge amount of rhizome of these two species is exploited from the community forest and exported to different places.