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Floristic Studies of Pappanamcode Village,

Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala, India

Arya Raj A*

Research Scholar, Dept. of Botany and Research Centre, Scott Christian College,
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu.
Email of corresponding author: aryaraja2151994@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The study was carried out in order to explore the floristic diversity of Pappanamcode

village, Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala. To assess the plant diversity, regular field visits
were conducted in the intensive study area during August 2018 – March 2019. Specimens of

plants were collected and identified taxonomically by using the regional floras (Beddome
1869 – 1873; Hooker 1872 – 1897); Gamble and Fischer 1915 – 1936; Nair and Daniel 1986;

Henry et al. 1989; Mathew 1999). Based on the survey there are 503 plants belonging to 104
families which were documented in and around the areas of Pappanamcode village. These

503 plants were listed under three major categories, which consist of 492 Angiosperms, 3

Gymnosperms and 8 Pteridophytes. Life-form analysis of recorded plants shows that, herbs
(236) are the dominant category, followed by shrub (116), trees (94) and climbers/creepers

(57). The findings revealed that the listed plants show medicinal, ornamental, edible as well

as commercial values. Medicinal (46%) ranked highest contribution of reported use, followed
by Ornamental (38%), food crop (13%) and commercial crops (2%). Recent observation

shows that, the plant diversity in the study area is affected by natural as well as anthropogenic
disturbances such as deforestation, global warming, landslides, flood, urbanization, plantation

and pollution. These activities disturb the ecological balance and result in massive destruction
of biodiversity.

Keywords: Floristic Diversity, Conservation, Anthropogenic Activities, Natural Calamities,

Pappanamcode village

INTRODUCTION
Biodiversity or biological diversity refers to the variety and variability among living

organism and the ecological complexes in which they occur. The variety and variation in
plant species or the flora of ecosystem is termed as plant diversity. Plants serve many

functions in our life. The most common is as a reliable provision of food through agriculture
(Mathur 2017). From the ancient periods, man has been depending on plants or plant products

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