Prospecting intraspecific diversity, utilities and biotic threats of some weed species in selected forest areas of Paschim Medinipur district for their proper exploitation.

Abstract

Forest floor is often found to host plenty of herbs and shrubs growing spontaneously and most of that are known as weeds. In previous time weeds were considered as harmful unwanted plant. But in recent times this concept has changed. Many of the weeds have medicinal properties; in addition, some other economical uses as sources of fiber, oil, fuel wood etc. are also available. Present study delves into the variability of weed species at the intraspecific i. e. infraspecific level taking into consideration the individuals of the same species from different localities. Four plant samples selected for the study are Lantana camara Linn, Crotalaria pallida Ait, Ocimum canum Sims and Tephrosia purpurea Linn. Phenological aspects considering various events i.e. time of sprouting, flowering, fruit setting, fruit maturity and fruit dehiscence are investigated. Diversity within the species has been searched for phenology, morphological and biochemical traits. Morphological studies are comprised of the traits related to stem, leaf etc. and biochemical studies estimation of DNA, RNA and Protein. Benefits out of all these herbs are very much influenced by different biotic and abiotic factors. The loss is quite exorbitant when such threats are anthropogenic or cattle or insects etc. So, this study has also enumerated some major threats of this kind and a suggestion for proper management of these selected species has been attempted to.