Tropical Plant Research

Jyotsna Rastogi*, D. S. Rawat and Satish Chandra

Abstract:
Biological diversity faces many threats throughout the world and one of the major threats is caused by invasion of alien species. The present study proves presence of 94 invasive alien species in flora of Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. These 94 invasive alien species (IAS) belong to 72 genera, under 33 families 85 species are dicotyledons while 9 species are monocotyledons. On the basis of their nativity maximum IAS have their sourced region as American continents (74), followed by Africa (8), Europe (5), Mediterranean (3) and Asia & Australia (2). The taxonomic analysis of IAS reveals dominance of Asteraceae with 18 spp. followed by Fabaceae, Amaranthaceae, Convolvulaceae, Malvaceae, Solanaceae, Poaceae etc. Among these, 78 IAS are herbs followed by shrubs (8), grasses (4), sedges (2), trees (1), and climber (1). Such a large number of invasive alien species in small area of Pantnagar, indicate miserable condition of natural vegetation.