Floristic Composition and Diversity of Native and Naturalised Species in the Biodiversity Heritage Site of GKVK Campus, UAS, Bangalore.

The study on floristic composition and diversity of flora in the heritage site of UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru revealed that the study site contains a total of 149 plant species belonging to 55 families which include 75 tree, 13 shrub, 59 herb and 2 climber species. The Shannon-Wiener Index (H') and Simpson's diversity index (1-D) was found to be 3.53 and 0.95, respectively which shows that the study site is a species diverse system. Majority of the trees (51.59%) were in the girth class range of 30 cm to 60 cm and shows a reverse J shaped growth curve which indicates that the forests of the study site has good regeneration. Majority (28.43%) of the trees were found in the height range of 12 m to 15 m. Abundance to frequency ratio analyzed in the heritage site shows that all the woody species were contiguously distributed. Importance value index (IVI) analyzed show's that Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm. (58.01) and Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Benth (38.64) were the dominant tree species. Lantana camara L. (8.15) - and Ziziphus oenopolia (L.) Mill. (7.34) were the major shrub species. Panicum maximum Jacq. (26.254), Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Rob.(18.28) and Mimosa pudica L. (15.94) were the dominant herb species found in the study site. The study revealed that the biodiversity heritage site of GKVK campus is rich in species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]