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Vascular Plants, Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India
Authors: Thankappan Sarasabai Shynin Brintha, James Edwin James and Solomon Jeeva
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The biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of urban environments is receiving increasing attention from ecologists. In this context we inventoried the vascular plant diversity of Scott Christian College campus which harbours part of the natural vegetation of Nagercoil city, Tamilnadu, India. A total of 670 plant species including 651 flowering plants and 19 non-flowering plants, belonging to 450 genera and 125 families were enumerated. The family Poaceae was the most species-diverse (60), followed by Euphorbiaceae (37), Fabaceae (35), Acanthaceae (30), Asteraceae (27), Rubiaceae (24), Araceae (21), Malvaceae (20), Caesalpiniaceae (19), Amaranthaceae and Apocynaceae (17 each), Moraceae (16), Convolvulaceae and Mimosaceae (14 each) Verbenaceae (13), Cucurbitaceae (11), Bignoniaceae, Solanaceae and Asclepiadaceae (10 each), the other families sharing the rest of the species. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of urban green space and greatly help in urban conservation planning and management.