Floristic Composition and Species Diversity of Plant Resources of rural area “Takht Bhai” District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

The study was conducted during 2017-18 to explore and identified flora of rural area Takht Bhai district Mardan. Information based upon floristic knowledge and biological spectrum of rural area Takht Bhai represent 140 taxon with 63 families including 4 Pteridophytic, 3 Gymnospermic and 56 Angiospermic families including 10 Monocots and 46 Dicots. Asteraceae was the topmost in term of number of species (13 sp) followed by Poaceae (9 sp) and Solanaceae (9 sp) each. Fabaceae having 7 species followed by Moraceae, Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rosaceae 6 species each. Habit class showed that herbaceous cover were dominant with 58.571% of the total flora followed by trees layer 25%, Shruby layer 11.42% and remaining 5.71% were climbers in area. Plant status concluded that 51.42% of plants were wild while 48.57% are cultivated. Biological spectra depicted that Therophytes were the dominant 40.71% followed by Microphanerophytes 18.57% in life form class while Microphyll 43.57% were highest in leaf size class followed by Nannophyll 20.71%. It was concluded that over utilization, over collection, over exploitation, habitat degradation, overharvesting, deforestation, population explosion and over grazing are the conspicuous biotic stresses which severely threatened the flora in the area which affect the population sustainability on earth crust.