Visual qualitative description of a humid tropical foothill forest in Indian eastern Himalayas

Abstract

Understanding plant community characteristics is essential for analysing phyto-diversity. This is a basic prerequisite for understanding the structural and functional attributes specific to a location to enable better landscape management. A study was conducted from April 2007 to March 2009 at Chilapatta Reserve Forest in the humid tropical foothills of the Indian eastern Himalayas to obtain comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of the plant community based on visual observations of qualitative characteristics. A total of 311 species of plants were recorded which were represented by 167 genera and 81 families. All the shrubs, herbs, climbers and lianas were observed to be evergreen, whereas trees were mostly deciduous. A total of 165 species were either much less present or less frequent. All the climber and liana species were found growing singly while all the fern species were growing in colonies. Unlike tree species, shrubs were found dominantly growing in colonies. Medium/small leaves dominated the forest. Among the tree species, 71.86% were growing intermixed. Tree stratum was dominated by medium height species. Tree species like Tectona grandis, Shorea robusta, Albizia spp., Swetenia mahogany, Gmelina arborea, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Bombax ceiba and Terminalia tomentosa were dominant in terms of solar radiation interception without any interference because they occupied the top most layer of the tree stratum/canopy. The forest is dense with no barren areas in its canopy cover intercepting more than 80% PAR. The study indicates not only rich diversity of the plant community but also heterogeneity in its composition and structure.