Forest flora of Badami Hills of Bagalkot district, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Badami is a place of historical importance, once ruled by Chalukyas, and contains many religious monuments. The study site is a World Heritage Site for ‘Evolution of Temple Architecture at, Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal’ by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). A detailed inventory of the angiosperms from the dry deciduous forests of Badami, Bagalkot District of Karnataka is presented which includes details on the distribution and occurrence of 558 species from 359 genera and 99 families. Fabaceae Lindl., Poaceae Berhart., Asteraceae Bercht. & J.Presl., Apocynaceae Juss., Cyperaceae Juss., Euphorbiaceae Juss. and Malvaceae Juss. are the dominant families. Fabaceae Lindl. contributes 15 % of total flora. In eudicots, Euphorbia L. (Rosids), Crotalaria L. (Rosids), Ipomoea L. (Asterids) and Alysicarpus Desv. (Rosids) are the dominant genera with 13, 9, 8 & 8 species respectively; while in monocots Cyperus L. (Commelinids), and Fimbristylis Vahl (Commelinids) each having 8 taxa and Eragrostis Nees. with 5 taxa are the dominant genera. The timing of flowering and fruiting, vegetation type and herbarium details are provided. These dry forests are a potential source of medicine, fruits, gum, fuel, food, fodder and oil yielding plants but are ignored by local people and are in decline due to high anthropogenic pressure, high grazing, high fuel wood exploration and tourism. Some of the plants are very rare, Barleria stocksii T.Anderson, Ceropegia spiralis Wight, Vahlia digyna (Retz.) Kuntze, Drimia raogibeikii (Hemadri) Hemadri, Iphigenia mysorensis Arekal & S.N.Ramaswamy, Uticularia caerulia L. and Drosera burmanni Vahl. The present article is an inventory of the flowering plants of the Badami Hills is based on a synthesis of literature review, herbarium visits and field collection undertaken during the last decade.