Occurrence and regeneration status of Embelia ribes Burm.f.: An endangered and medicinally important liana of Central Western Ghats

Abstract

Embelia ribes Burm.f. (Myrsinaceae) is an important medicinal, threatened woody climber rarely found in tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. The fruits of E. ribes are used as an ingredient in about more than 70 traditional pharmaceutical formulations including anti-fertility drugs and hence subjected to heavy exploitation from the natural populations. The species is reported to be vulnerable in the Western Ghats of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. There are only very few documentations of occurrences of this species in the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka and virtually no reports on its regeneration status. With this background, a preliminary survey was conducted in an evergreen forest of Uttara Kannada district, which receives over 4000 mm annual rain fall. Twenty-four matured individuals of Embelia ribes were identified in an area of 1 km², of which only eight individuals were in fruiting. Girth class distribution of adult individuals showed a regular pattern wherein individuals belonging to girth classes 5.1 - 10 cm and 25.1 - 30 cm were in higher proportion, followed by a gradual decrease in the subsequent girth classes. This pattern might be a result of a periodic cyclicity of reproductive efforts of the species. The diversity of the regenerating individuals was moderately higher with a Shannon's index of 2.61 and evenness index of 0.58. Although Embelia ribes ranked third in terms of importance value index, there was a severe lack of regeneration of class IV suggesting disturbance. Apart from Embelia ribes, 12 Rare Endangered and Threatened species were recorded in this area, making it one of the most significant forest patches.