Diversity of pteridophyte flora in Akamala forest station, Thrissur, Kerala

Akamala forest station belongs to Machad forest range in Thrissur district. No literature is available regarding the diversity of flora and fauna of this forest range. The current study focuses on the diversity of pteridophytes in the Attoor beat of Akamala forest station. The survey has been carried out from June 2015 to August 2016. A total of 24 species of pteridophytes were collected from the study area. Floristic analysis of collected specimens was carried out to find out the families, genus and species. The collected species belonged to17 genera, 14 families and 2 classes. Except different species of Selaginella ((Lycopsida) all other members belonged to the class Filicopsida (Fern group). The most frequently represented species were Selaginella, Adiantum, Hemonitis and Pteris. Most of the collected species were terrestrial. Epiphytes, lithophytes and aquatic species were also reported, but few in numbers. Regarding the conservation status, 2 species belonged to ‘endangered’ category, 4 species under the category ‘rare’ and 1 species ‘at risk’. The result of the study indicates the richness of pteridophyte diversity in the study area.