Abstract
Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo, commonly known as “Panchaunle”, is an important medicinal plant species distributed throughout the Himalaya region. The present work was conducted in order to assess its availability in natural habitats because of its medicinal properties, cultural significance and declining population density. The work focused primarily on its ecological features and conservation status. The density of D. hatagirea was found to be 2.18 individuals·m-2 with frequency and abundance being 81.81% and 2.67 individuals·m-2, respectively. We considered grazing, trampling, number of cattle and distance to settlement as anthropogenic factors. While grazing and trampling were shown to have a significant, negative impact on population density, we observed no significant change in the number of the species with respect to number of cattle and distance to settlement. We conclude that the species is threatened and that anthropogenic factors have a significant effect on its habitation in the study area.
Highlights
Orchidaceae, the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and geographically widespread family of monocotsHow to cite this paper: Bhattarai, P., Pandey, B., Gautam, R.K. and Chhetri, R. (2014) Ecology and Conservation Status of Threatened Orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea
In the light of these circumstances, this study aims to 1) sample the present ecological data of the species and regress them with different anthropogenic factors; and 2) identify the threats to the species in the Manaslu Conservation Area
The conservation area comprises of seven village development committee (VDCs), Sirdibas, Bihi, Prok, Lho, Samagaun, Chumchet and Chhekampar whereas the present study focuses on the altitudinal range between 2800 m to 4200 m in Samagaun Village, where anabundance of Dactylorhiza hatagirea was recorded
Summary
Orchidaceae, the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and geographically widespread family of monocotsHow to cite this paper: Bhattarai, P., Pandey, B., Gautam, R.K. and Chhetri, R. (2014) Ecology and Conservation Status of Threatened Orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea (2014) Ecology and Conservation Status of Threatened Orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea Don) Soo in Manaslu Conservation Area, Central Nepal. They are found in a variety of ecological conditions and generally occur in four forms based on their habitat (i.e. terrestrial, epiphytic, lithophytic and saprophytic). Orchidaceaeis believed to be the second largest family of flowering plants after Asteraceae, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, grouped into 880 genera. The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2000 species), Epidendrum (1500 species), Dendrobium (1400 species) and Pleurothallis (1000 species) (World Checklist of Selected Families, 2013). Nepal harbors 437 species of orchid belonging to 104 genera [3]
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