Herbaceous species diversity in Veerani Aloor, Kanyakumari district, Tamilnadu, South India

Herbaceous plant species are important components of ecosystems. Herbs are variable in their presence as well as presence of certain chemical compounds in their body system. Floristic studies acquire increasing importance in recent years in response to the need of developing and understand and under developing countries to assess their plant wealth. Total 54 plant species belonging to 20 families and 48 genera were recorded from the study site. Out of 54 plants, 54 were angiosperms. The contribution of dicotyledons was 98% and monocotyledons 2%. Acanthaceae was the most dominant family with 6 species and 6 genera and other main contributing families were Amaranthaceae (7 species and 6 genera), Euphorbiaceae (6 species and 4 genera), Apocynaceae (5 species and 5 genera), Capparaceae (3 species and 3 genera) and Malvaceae (3 species and 3 genera). The most dominant life from was wild (87%) followed by ornamental (12%) and cultivation (2%). The dominance of plants from Poaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Apocynaceae families in the study site, supports the harsh environmental conditions especially the water stress, because these plants have made morphological, anatomical and a physiological modifications to overcome the drought conditions. Dominance of Papilionaceae shows that these areas are nutrient deficient especially nitrogen.