Abstract:
An inventory of the plant species in Swat Ranizai of District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan was made during March 2013 to October 2015. A total of 264 plant species belonging to 90 families and 202 genera were recorded, including five ferns, one gymnosperm, 42 monocots and 216 dicots. Poaceae was found to be the most dominant family that contributed 20 species to the overall floristic composition followed by Labiatae (16 spp.), Asteraceae (14 spp.), Solanaceae (11 spp.), Papilionaceae (10 spp.) and Rosaceae (10 spp.), respectively. The remaining families shared less than 10 species to the overall floristic composition. It was observed that most of the taxa were perennials (172 spp.) and annuals (86 spp.), whereas, biennial were merely 06 species of the total. Based on habit, herbs were the most frequent (123 spp.), whereas, the representation of climbers and grasses were comparatively high then sedges. The results show that Phanerophytes were the most abundant life-form and Microphyll had the most dominant leaf size spectrum in the total floristics. The c2 test demonstrated significant differences (c2 = 56.68, p = 0.001), with the highest deviation for therophytes (40.69) from normal Raunkiaer's spectrum. It was concluded that the dominance of Phanerophytes and Microphyll leaf size is due to the influence of typical climate of subtropical regions, though receive a significant amount of precipitation and the area is under heavy biotic pressure. The present study will be helpful in the restoration and conservation plans of the ecologically and medicinally important plants in Malakand Division.