Growth pattern of Celastrus paniculatus Willd. in two different habitats of district Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand (India)

Abstract

Tehri Garhwal is one of the most important hilly district of Uttarakhand state, which is located at the foot hills of Himalayan mountain ranges has a rich and diverse form of vegetation along with medicinal and aromatic plants. Traditionally the folk people and the local inhabitants utilize the vegetation from their contiguous in the form of medicine, timber, food, fiber etc. Among these useful plants population of the some useful plants are becoming rare and threatened due to unsustainable utilization, overexploitation, construction of roads, over grazing, pilgrims, construction of large dams, forest encroachment, landslides and natural calamities, modernize agriculture etc. Out of these medicinal plants, a very important and threatened medicinal plant is C. paniculatus (Malkangni). The present study deals with conservation and cultivation practices of C. paniculatus in two altitudinal sites i.e. site 1st - village Budogi lying on the altitude of 2000m asl. and site 2nd - S.R.T. Campus Botanical Garden, Badshahithaul (Tehri Garwal), upto 1600m asl. Measurements of the plant height, number of leaves, size of veins etc. was compared at two altitudinal zones. The samples parameters from site 2nd showed maximum growth rate of C. paniculatus i.e. 8.4± 0.86 cm, 9.01± 2.0 and 2.63± 0.23 cm for plant height, number of leaves and size of veins respectively as compared to site 1st i.e. 5.19±0.52 cm, 4.85±0.85 and 2.27±0.1 cm. Thus, C. paniculatus showed best growth rate at an elevation up to 1600m. The cultivation practice will provide reliable information for cultivation of this species in a particular altitudinal range.