Floristic Composition and Biological Characteristics of the Vegetation of Sheikh Maltoon Town District Mardan, Pakistan

Abstract

Aims: The study was designed to explore the floristic composition and biological characteristics. Place and Duration of Study: A record of plant species of Sheikh Maltoon Town Mardan was organized during 2008 – 2009. Methodology: A record of plant species was organized on the source of field trips conducted in winter, summer and monsoon, and identified with available literature. The plants were classified into different life form and leaf size classes after standard methods. Results: The flora consisted of 91 plant species belonging to 76 genera and 38 families. Asteraceae, Poaceae and Cucurbitaceae are the dominant families of the floristic composition of research area. The biological spectrum explains that therophytes (52 spp., 57.14%), magaphanerophytes (11 spp., 12.09%) were the dominant followed by hemicryptophytes (9 spp., 9.89%), chamaephytes (8 spp., 8.79%), nanophanerophytes (6 spp., 6.59%), geophytes (4 spp., 4.39%) and parasite (1 spp., 1.1%). Leaf spectra of plants consisted of microphylls (46.2%), mesophylls (25.3%), nanophylls (13.2%), leptophylls (9.59%) and megaphylls (5.49%). Conclusion: Analysis of the present work reveals the phytoclimate to be of therophytic type. The domination of therophytes indicates that the investigated area is under deep biotic stress.