CYPSELA MORPHOLOGY OF LACTUCA L. AND ITS ALLIED GENERA (CICHOREAE-ASTERACEAE) FROM PAKISTAN AND KASHMIR

摘要

A comprehensive floristic survey was conducted to record the botanical diversity, ethnotaxonomy and the reproductivephenological response of the vascular flora of the district Kotli, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan during 2011-13. A totalof 463 plant species belonging to 306 genera and 93 families were recorded. The most dominant families in the study areawere Poaceae (54 spp.), Leguminosae (39 spp.), Compositae (33 spp.), Lamiaceae (23 spp.) and Rosaceae (22 spp.), whereasthe leading genera were Ficus (8 spp.), Ipomoea, Cyperus, Euphorbia and Solanum (6 spp. each). Use of online taxonomicliterature and databases enabled us to document most of the species with their current accepted names, author citations andtheir placement in the higher taxa. Two different aspects, flowering duration and start of flowering event (or timing) werealso recorded. Phenological studies revealed that most of the species found in flowering stage during the August (252 spp.),followed by July (245 spp.), May (239 spp.) and April (237 spp.); while with respect to flowering event, maximum numberof species started their flowering in the month of March (111 spp.), followed by April (67 spp.) and July (62 spp.).Withrespect to floral growth forms, there was higher diversity of trees compared to the shrubs in the study area.This informationpertaining to nomenclatural status, current placement of taxa and their phenological responses may provide baselineinformation to taxonomists, ecologists or phytogeographer, natural resource managers and conservationists for carrying outstudies from this part of the western Himalaya.