FLORISTIC DIVERSITY OF SINGHORI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, RAISEN DISTRICT, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA

The present paper is aimed to study the floristic diversity of Singhori Wildlife Sanctuary of Raisen district situated in Vindhyan Ranges of Madhya Pradesh, India. A total of 570 species (119 trees, 57 shrubs, 339 herbs, 55 climbers) belonging to 382 genera and 120 families were recorded. Among these, families, Papilionaceae (55 species), Poaceae (47 species), Asteraceae (26 species), Acanthaceae (26 species), Euphorbiaceae (23 species) were most dominant families. Of these, Ficus and Ipomoea are largest genera, represented by 9 species, followed by Euphorbia (7) and Indigofera (7). 300 plant species have been recorded and categorized with their uses and 30 medicinal plants were documented for the cure of different diseases by the ethnic people of the study area. The present study is probably first of its kind where the description of plants has been supplemented by photographs, illustrations and herbarium of the species reported from the Singhori Wildlife Sanctuary.…