SKUAST Journal of Research

The study investigates the Community Structure and Phytodiversity of Urban Green Park, Wazir bagh, Anantnag, Kashmir” during the Year 2022. The Phytosociology and floristic diversity survey was conducted throughout the year. In the first instance efforts were made to identify various species present in the study area. During the study all species including trees, shrubs, herbs, and ornamental plants were taken into consideration. Specimens were collected during growing season from study site and identified from Division of Environmental science, SKUAST-Kashmir and centre for Biodiversity and Taxonomy, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir. The data on vegetation was evaluated in terms of Density, Basal area, Frequency, Important Value Index (IVI) separately for three different life forms tree, shrub and herb species. Investigations conducted revealed that the study area is having rich floristic diversity. A total of 65species were recorded in the study area in which 25 were trees, 16 shrubs and 24 herb species. These species belong to 36 families. Among all the families, Rosaceae is the dominant family represented by nine species, followed by Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae and Magnoliaceae with six, four and four species, respectively. The IVI of the tree species shows Platanus orientalis, Morus alba and Salix babylonica were dominant with IVI value of 29.3,25.3 and 23.2 followed by Juglans regia (22.2) and Cupressus torulosa (19.1). Among the shrubs Thuja compacta, Ligustrum ovalifolium and Nerium oleander dominated the site with highest IVI of 25.58,23.61 and 23.53 respectively. The lowest IVI of 13.20 was recorded for Chaenomeles japonica. Similarly, in case of herb population the highest density was recorded in Cynadondactylon with a density of 6.76 tillers/m² followed by Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens with a density 5.76 and 4.59 tillers/m² respectively. These findings contribute valuable insights into the ecological resilience and species composition of Wazir Bagh, underscoring the need for conservation strategies that preserve its unique biodiversity amidst ongoing environmental changes.