An assessment of floristic diversity of ahmednagar, maharashtra

Present work is based on extensive botanical explorations carried out in the different parts of Ahmednagar with critical literature and herbarium studies. An assessment of floristic diversity of city revealed that, recently developed areas around the old city with open places and wastelands exhibit remarkable plant diversity. During the study total 343 plant species were documented. Of these, 49 species of 12 families were monocotyledonous and 290 species of 64 families were dicotcotyledonus, while 4 species of 4 families were recorded from pteridophytes. Herbs (162 species) were found to be most abundant, followed by trees (93 species) and shrubs (67 species). The most dominant family in the area was found to be Asteraceae (27 species), followed by Fabaceae (26 species), Poaceae (22 species), Caesalpiniaceae (22 species) and Euphorbiaceae (20 species). Total 20 endemic plants were found to be distributed in this area, 71 species were exotic and 48 were growing as weeds. About 215 species had medicinal potential, among which 60 plants have already been mentioned in Ayurvedic literature. Total 37 plants were in use as edibles.