Description
Astral Publishing Trees of Western Ghats India Vol 1 by S Karuppusamy P Bharath Simha Yadav
In the two volumes of the Trees of Western Ghats, a total of 1 ,225 flowering tree species have been enumerated in the hill ranges, belonging to 362 genera and 96 families. Among these 96 families, 1 4 families contained more than 30 species each, they are accounting for 60.5% of the total taxa. Fabaceae has the highest number of species, with 93 taxa across 32 genera, followed by Lauraceae with 91 taxa, Myrtaceae with 79, Rubiaceae with 62, Malvaceae with 60, Euphorbiaceae with 53, Annonaceae with 50 and so on. The largest family is Fabaceae which leads with 32 genera, followed by Rubiaceae with 26, Malvaceae with 20 and so on. Approximately 25 genera contain more than ten species each. The genus Syzygium has the highest species representation with 50 taxa, followed by Memecylon with 38 species, Ficus with 34, Diospyros with 33, Symplocos with 3 1 , Eugenia with 27, Litsea with 26, Cinnamomum with 25 species, etc. A total of 419 taxa are introduced to Western Ghats from the different regions of the world. These 425 exotic taxa are belonging to 48 families and 21 8 genera. Volume 1 is containing 614 tree taxa belonging 1 80 genera and 47 families (Achariaceae-Lythraceae) and volume 2 accounted with 61 1 tree taxa belonging 182 genera and 49 families (Magnoliaceae to Zygophyllaceae). First volume given brief introduction of the Western Ghats, phytogeography, climatology, forest and vegetation types of the Western Ghats, key to the families for identification and systematic enumeration of tree taxa from Achariaceae to Lythraceae. Whereas in volume two provided the systematic enumeration of the families from Magnolicaeae to Zygophyllaceae, analysis of tree flora of Western Ghats, list of Red Listed Tree species of Western Ghats and colour photographs of maximum number of tree species affixed at the end. All the tree species provided citation according to recent ICN, synonyms, vernacular names, short description, flowering phenology, distribution in Western Ghats, India and world, recent IUCN status and identification notes if any. Photographs of most of the tree species given at the end of each volume given that is easy tool for accurate identification of tree species.