Abstract
Cyanobacteria are Gram negative, photosynthetic and nitrogen fixing microorganisms which contribute much to our present-day life as medicines, foods, biofuels and biofertilizers. Western Ghats are the hotspots of biodiversity with rich combination of microbial flora including cyanobacteria. Though cosmopolitan in distribution, their abundance in tropical forests are not fully exploited. To fill up this knowledge gap, the present research was carried out on the cyanobacterial flora of Peruvannamuzhi forest and Janaki forests of Western Ghats in Kozhikode District, North Kerala State, India. Extensive specimen collections were conducted during South-West monsoon (June to September) and North-East monsoon (October to December) in the year 2019. The highest diversity of cyanobacteria was found on rock surfaces. A total of 18 cyanobacterial taxa were identified. Among them filamentous heterocystous forms showed maximum diversity with 10 species followed by non- heterocystous forms with 8 species. The highest number of cyanobacteria were identified from Peruvannamuzhi forest with 15 taxa followed by Janaki forest with 3 taxa. The non- heterocystous cyanobacterial genus Oscillatoria Voucher ex Gomont showed maximum abundance with 4 species. In this study we reported Planktothrix planktonica (Elenkin) Agagnostidis & Komárek 1988, Oscillatoria euboeica Anagnostidis 2001 and Nostoc interbryum Sant’Anna et al. 2007 as three new records from India.
 Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 28(1): 83-95, 2021 (June)
Highlights
Cyanobacteria are morphologically distinct group of Gram negative, photosynthetic and nitrogen fixing microorganisms
The study was conducted in Peruvannamuzhi forest and Janaki forest of Western Ghats located in Kozhikode District, Kerala state, India
This area is a part of Malabar Wild life Sanctuary and this region stretches between 11.5966o N and 75.8232o E covering an area of 74.215015 km2
Summary
Cyanobacteria are morphologically distinct group of Gram negative, photosynthetic and nitrogen fixing microorganisms They are believed to evolve during Proterozoic Era between 2.5 and 3.5 billion years ago commonly known as the Age of Cyanobacteria (Hoek et al, 1993) and these prokaryotes made our planet earth oxygenic (Gupta et al, 2006). They have constituted the most diverse group of organisms in Plant Kingdom. Cyanobacteria are economically important because of their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen and are used as biofertilizers (Mishra and Pabby 2004). Being rich in phycobiliproteins they are used as natural colorants (Pandey et al, 2013)
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