Grasses of Arid Zone of Peninsular India

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Study area. 3. Present work and plan of the flora. 4. Floristic analysis. 5. Systematic enumeration. References. Index to scientific names. This book deals with the grasses of Arid zone of peninsular India encompassing three Rayalaseema districts of Andhra Pradesh and eight districts located in north-eastern region of Karnataka. A total of 216 wild and naturalized grass taxa comprising 214 species and 75 genera are described in the book with illustrations and photographs for selected species. Of the grasses of arid zone of peninsular India, Karnataka region harbours 204 taxa and representing 54% of the wild and naturalized grasses of the state and Andhra Pradesh arid zone harbours 167 taxa representing 62% of the grass genus of the study areas is Eragrostis with 20 species followed by Digitaria (10 species) and Chrysopogan, Panicum, Sporobolus (9 species). Of the 216 grass taxa, 27 species are found endemic to India, of which 15 are confined to peninsular India. Thirteen grass taxa are new distributional records to South India, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Bracketed keys are provided for the genera and species and infra-specific taxa. Salient features of the genus shared common by the all the species are presented for every genus. Infra-generic taxa are described with a full citation, brief morphology followed by the information on the distribution pattern of the taxon in the world, India and study area, habitat abundance, phenology and representative specimens. Remarks on taxonomic affinities ecological variation, nomenclature notes etc. were given wherever necessary. (jacket).…