Patterns of Rarity and Endemism in Flowering Plants - a New Approach in Conservation Planning

Abstract

India is well known for its great biodiversity. In order to protect it, over 470 protected areas have been created so far. Mainly on the basis of faunal wealth. Floral wealth had not given its due place specially at species level. The major reason for this being lack of adequate information on localities of important plant species, this leading to a gap on where to protect plant resources. In view of the above a methodology was evolved to find out potential sites on the basis of data related to rare endemic plant. A relationship was drawn between broad distribution and frequency of collection to assess possible rarity value of each significant taxa. This methodology provides objectivity to selection of potential sites for plant conservation.