LAUSR

The present study provides a taxonomic account of the angiosperms of Sonbhadra District in Uttar Pradesh.  The district, which comes under the Vindhyan region of Uttar Pradesh, is one of the richest areas in the state as far as plant diversity is concerned.  It is spread over about 6788km² of geographical area, which constitutes about 36% forest cover on highly undulated land.  The extensive survey of the area conducted during 2011-–2016, critical examination of previous collections housed at various herbaria, and review of published literature have resulted in a total of 705 species belonging to 459 genera under 110 families.  Out of these, 541 species (76.73%) under 354 genera (77.12%) and 89 families (80.90%) belong to dicots, and 164 species (23.26%) under 105 genera (23.26%) and 21 families (19.09%) to monocots.  The present enumeration of the species also includes about 78 species cultivated in the area for various purposes.  Fabaceae (110 spp.) comprises of the maximum number of species, followed by Poaceae (89 spp.), Asteraceae (38 spp.), Cyperaceae (33 spp.), and Malvaceae (33 spp.).  Some of the largest genera in the area are Cyperus (14 spp.), Ipomoea (9 spp.), Solanum (9 spp.), Ficus (9 spp.), Crotalaria (7 spp.), Desmodium (7 spp.), Bauhinia (6 spp.), Hibiscus (6 spp.), Fimbristylis (6 spp.), Acacia (5 spp. ), etc.  The entire forest is chiefly dominated by trees such as Acacia catechu (L.f.) Willd., Boswellia serrata Roxb. ex Colebr., Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub., Hardwickia binata Roxb., and Shorea robusta Gaertn.