Floristic diversity and its conservation status in the selected sacred groves of Madurai District, TamilNadu, India

The Art of nature worship is an ancient Indian tradition. The Sacred Groves are example of this worship, here the batches of plant diversity protected by ethnic peoples under believes that to keep them in secrecy of relationship with the nature. It provides the information about the ancient life form and the myth about the nature. In the present study, the floristic composition and conservation status of selected sacred groves were analyzed, totally 150 species belonging to 65 families were recorded from the five selected sacred groves. The family Euphorbiaceae (14 species) was represented with maximum number of species followed by Caesalpiniaceae (9 species) and Fabaceae (8 species). Overall, the herbaceous species (53) were more dominant than trees (42), shrubs (36) and climber (19). Among the different families of flowering plants recorded, Polypetalae (23) were found to be more in number than Gamopetalae (19), Monocots (16) and Apetalae (7). The species composition of each grove was unique and 68 plant species were found in only one grove due to habitat variation. Two rare plants such as insectivorous plant Drosera indica L. and the partial plant parasite Dendrophthoe falcata (L.f.) Ettingsh. were recorded from grove one and four respectively. The selected groves were well conserved by local residences of those areas through myths, beliefs and folklores.