Abstract
With the rapid increase in urbanization including construction for road and rail connectivity and accelerated disturbances in the natural habitats, the introduction, establishment, and invasion of alien and native invasive plants are favored in the Indo-Burma biodiversity region. Detail information on alien and invasive plants in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity region are very meager. Therefore, detail studies on such plants are very important so that the plant invasion process does not get out of hand. Present study deals with assessment of the distribution of alien and invasive and other native plants which were considered as weeds. In the study, different localities distributed in the hills and the valleys at tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones of Manipur state were randomly surveyed and plants of non-woody life forms (herbs, shrubs and climbers) were investigated. A total of 98 alien and invasive plant species were recorded from different localities of the state. Most of them originated from the American continent and contributing ca. 59%. With 28 species, the Asteraceae family was the most dominant among the total 29 families recorded. Dominant species include Ageratina adenophora (Spreng.) King and H. Rob., Ageratum conyzoides L., Ageratum houstonianum Mill., Bidens pilosa L., Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King and H. Rob., Lantana camara L., and Mikania micrantha Kunth. Most of these species were recorded from tropical habitats and their abundance value was comparatively lower in temperate region. Among the recorded species, 37 species were documented for various uses where most of them were used for curing various ailments.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India for providing financial assistance through G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Almora to carry out the research work under a project entitled “Invasive Alien Plants in Himalayas: Status, Ecological Impact, and Management”. Additionally, we thank the officials and staff of the Forest Department of Manipur and the ethnic people of Manipur for their valuable support and for sharing knowledge on the traditional applications of these plants during this study.
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Singh, M.S., Tripathi, O.P., Yadav, H.S. et al. Assessment of non-woody alien and invasive plant species along the altitudinal gradients of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot in Manipur, India. Vegetos (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42535-023-00649-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42535-023-00649-7