Assessment of Floristic Diversity and its Structural Composition in South Gujarat

The study deals with the status of floristic diversity and its structural composition in South Gujarat, Tehsil-Mandvi. District-Surat, Stratified random sampling method was used for vegetation assessment. Total 77 plant species were recorded from the study site out of that total of 47tree species, 20 shrub species, 3herbs, 2 climbers, 2 grass and 1 weed species belonging to 18 families. Vegetation analysis revealed that plant communities were dominated by the family Lamiaceae, Rhamnaceae and Asteraceae which indicatea huge difference in site conditions. The higher level of diversity and the high basal area of woody plant species representthe good condition of the forest. However, the effect of anthropogenic activities and stresses areobserved so that proper management for maintaining or enhancing the present species diversity is needful. Butea monosperma, Tectona grandis, Terminalia arjuna and Terminalia crenulata were the most dominant species documented from the study site which containsthe highest biomass and carbon. Nearly all the specific plant species show the contagious distribution pattern. The value of the Shannon index shows the extremely high diversity of all the plant habits except shrub species.