Distributional pattern of Asteraceae along a Spatial

African Journal of Plant Science Vol. 6(11), pp. 303-308, August 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPS DOI: 10.5897/AJPS12.086 ISSN 1996-0824 ©2012 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Distributional pattern of Asteraceae along a spatial gradient in urban and suburban areas of Lahore City, Pakistan Uzma Hanif*, Zaheer-ud-din Khan and Amin U. Khan Department of Botany, Government College (GC) University, Lahore, Pakistan. Accepted 30 April, 2012

Ecological significance of Asteraceae in response to common colonizers due to the fast pace of urbanization in Lahore District was determined. The species are natural colonizers in this area. In order to gauge the response, sites from both urban and suburban areas were selected. A total of 28 species under 22 genera of the family Asteraceae were collected and identified. The results reveal that members of Asteraceae have highest diversity in suburban having richness of 18 species, followed by urban having only four species. The diversity index indicates that highest diversity was in suburban and rural wastelands of Raiwind. In comparison with the previous record, only 60% species of Asteraceae previously reported were found, out of which 50% species were present in suburban and rural and only 10% in urban areas. It appears that decline in the species number was due to the excessive growth of population, urbanization, industrialization, and invasive exotics like Parthenium hysterophorus and Pantanema vestitum. Key words: Urbanization, colonizers, diversity index, wastelands, exotics.

INTRODUCTION Asteraceae (Compositae) is the richest vascular plant family in the world, with 1600 to 1700 genera and 24,000 to 30,000 species (Funk et al., 2005). They are easily distinguished by the florets grouped in capitula, and the fruit, a cypsela often with a pappus. Asteraceae taxa can assume almost every life-form such as herbs, shrubs and most rare trees. They are found in every environment and continent, except Antarctica (Funk et al., 2005). In Pakistan, they are well represented in both temperate, sub-temperate, grassland and wood grassland and in subtropical areas (Ghafoor, 2002). Many species in this family are troublesome weeds. Most investigations on diversity are restricted to species richness while ignoring species evenness. Ecologists have made significant progress in describing how biotic and abiotic factors can shape the abundance

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

and distribution of species, and the structure and function of communities and ecosystems. Rutter and Sheikh (1960) conducted a quantitative research on the vegetation of waste lands around Lahore in relation to soil conditions. They found a total of seven vegetation types dominated by grasses in association with other families. They found a total of six Compositae species which were identified as Carthamus oxyacantha, Cnicus arvensis, Cotula hemispherica, Launaea nudicaulis, Conyza ambigua and Echinops echinatus. Khan and Rashid (1994) found that the landscape of Lahore was once covered by dense thorn forest and the modern landscape has developed as a result of the loss of original deciduous woodland, due to increasing urbanization and the deliberate invasion of the exotics. The present vegetation is the result of international introduction of invasive exotics like Prosopis juliflora and Broussonetia papyrifera, which have become completely naturalized and have eliminated native plants including herbs, shrubs and trees. Ejaz (2002) examined the

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Table 1. Selection of sites.

Site S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6

Spatial type* Suburban colonies Rural (agriculture land) Suburban natural Urban parks and recreation sites Suburban rural wastelands Urban roadsides and drains

Areas covered Burki, Defense and around Allama Iqbal International Airport. Wahga Boarder, Jallo Park and surroundings. Mohlan wall and Saghian around River Ravi. Archaeological sites (Lahore Fort, Shalimar Garden, and Jahangir’s tomb). Raiwind and adjoining areas. Sewage channel (between jail road and Mall road).

competitive abilities of the exotic plants and their results indicated that Parthenium hysterophorus L. is a better competitor than the other species. It appeared that the establishment of completion and the life cycle of the P. hysterophorus L. were the main features in outcompeting the dominants of Asteraceae in the wasteland area of Lahore. Maria et al. (2007) studied the diversity and distribution of the family Asteraceae along a rainfall gradient in Uganda. The distribution was high in dry grassland habitats, and road side habitats have less number of species. Vegetation is highly affected by climatic factors such as rainfall, temperature, evaporation, radiation and relative humidity. Lahore, the second largest and most urbanized city in Pakistan (Amjad et al., 2005), also known as the Gardens of Mughals or City of gardens (Kausar et al., 1990) was considered as the best site for the introduction of many types of plants from all over the world. Many of the introduced plants have become a threat to the natural vegetation (Khan and Rashid, 1994). The high diversity of urban landscapes, resulting from variable land use creates a great variety of ecological conditions for plants (Gilbert, 1998). These characteristics make the urban areas unique in their ecological and environmental conditions and ecological patterns within urban areas are relatively consistent worldwide (Alberti et al., 2003; McKinney, 2006). The present study focuses on the density, frequency, diversity and occurrence of the members of Asteraceae in the city of Lahore. We hoped to meet the objectives of the present work by doing the following procedures: 1. Comparative study of Asteraceae family from the flor of Lahore by Kashyap and Joshi (1936). 2. Listing of new species introduced in Lahore District. 3. Knowing the status of the existing members of the concerned family. Since the ecological analysis is based on urban and suburban habitat, the result can help us in appreciating the impact in the two situations.

74° 39′ E longitude with the elevation ranging from 211 to 213 m. It covers about 1772 square kilometers. The climate of Lahore is very healthy and salubrious and classified as sub-humid subtropical continental (Soil Survey Report, 2005). As a result of this, a general survey was conducted to select the sites for seasonal survey of the area. The criterion was to select sites having growth of natural stands/vegetation representative of the entire city. The surveys started with the general description of the area. This investigation was planned to observe the distribution of the species to determine the preference for habitat. The selected sites, marked as permanent sites were visited in summer, rainy and winter seasons. The sites were selected along a spatial gradient and denoted by three points, representing low, moderate and high levels of urbanization covering both urban and suburban areas (Table 1). Primarily, the whole Lahore city was visited frequently, though the research was restricted to the selected sites for the occurrence of the representative species. Fieldwork was carried out during April 2006 to September 2009. It included the sampling of floristic data. The first data set consisted of subjectively or non random (NR) sampling, that is, with already known patches of vegetation type. The representative patches of that vegetation type were marked in the field on the basis of the following criteria and pre-conditions: 1. Plots had to be fairly easy to access, meaning that they were either located near roads or in the middle of large fields. 2. Plots were subjectively chosen so that only those plots were selected which contain the members of the Asteraceae. 3. Braun-Blanquet’s approach used by Muller-Dombois and Ellenberg (1974) had been applied for the analysis of vegetation. Nomenclature of plants was based on Stewart (1978) and Ali and Qaiser (1992 to 2007). The identified plants were pressed, dried, preserved and deposited in Dr. Sultan Ahmed Herbarium GCU, Lahore. Species diversity was calculated after Brower and Jerrold (1977) as follows: ‘H’ = - ∑ pi log pi

Experimental sites The observational studies were carried out in the following selected sites: Each site was selected by keeping in mind spatial heterogeneity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS The area under investigation is located in Lahore District, Punjab, Pakistan. It lies between 31° 13′ to 31° 43′ N latitudes and 74° 00 to

After the ecological studies, results comprises important values (IV), Shannon diversity index and the distribution of families and their associates in relative sites.

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Diversity index and IVI of Asteraceae in selected sites of lahore District

IVI and diversity index

7 6 5 Diversity Index

4

IVI 3 2 1 0 S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S6

Selected sites

Figure 1. Relationship between diversity index and IVI of Asteraceae in selected sites of Lahore District.

IV of Asteraceae Asteraceae showed the maximum IV in the S1 site which is a suburban colony while S5, which is a rural waste land area in Lahore District having 6.0, was the second, acquiring the highest IV. S2, S3 and S4 had almost the same IV of 5.7, 5.1 and 5.4, respectively. S6, which is an urban centre, showed the least IV. Similarities were apparent between the IV at different selected sites and when the range of vegetation was observed, certain features became more apparent as discussed in diversity (Figure 1).

species which were not present before, the poor soil, less amount of organic matter and inhibition of the grazers to these protected areas. Urban road and drain sides also showed the lowest diversity index because these slopes usually had limited nutrient resources and toxic chemicals. The drain water also delimited the growth of the vegetation. The highest numbers of species were observed in suburban colonial because in Burki, BRB canal passes which provides continuous moisture to the species; similarly there is defense of vacant plots where these species that established themselves were present. Suburban natural which is also a riparian site showed 1.27 diversity index as given in Figure 1.

Common species The common species were those which were present in three or more than three sites, although these common species were not evenly distributed. So the name of each common species along with respective site had also been mentioned. Among them P. hysterophorus in all six sites, Conyza ambigua in all six sites, Pulicaria crispa in S1 , S2, and S5, Xanthium strumarium in S1 , S2, and S3, Eclipta alba in S1 , S5 and S6 Cnicus arvensis in S1 , S2, and S5, Sonchus asper in all five sites, Launea nudicaulis in S1 , S2, S4 S5 and S6, Chenopodium album in S1 , S2, S3 and S6 and Chenopodium murale in S2, S4 and S5 were the most common species (Table 3).

Distribution of families Diversity of Asteraceae

Burki site (S1)

The species diversity was calculated using Shannon Winner diversity index (‘H’) for S1 , S2, S3, S4 , S5 and S6 sites. Species diversity varies between the sites as the species richness increases or decreases. Species richness is the expression of numbers of species which is actually the diversity of the area. Total numbers of plant species were 28 belonging to 22 genera. The highest diversity was observed in suburban colonial site (S1) having maximum diversity index of 2.74 while suburban rural waste areas of Raiwind had second highest diversity index which was 1.75 with species richness of 16. Although it was a saline area, the high diversity index was due to the fact that the species were present usually in patches and the vegetation was less dense as compared to suburban colonial site. Suburban agriculture, suburban natural, urban protected areas and urban road and drain side had almost the same diversity index of 1.36, 1.27, 1.14 and 0.98, respectively (Figure 1). The lowest diversity value in urban protected areas was due to the protection of the site, which is important in encouraging the suppression of invasion by those

The total numbers of the species found in this site were 17 having the highest diversity index in all. Along with common species, the other species found were Cichorium intybus, Pentanema vestitum, Pulicaria crispa , Eclipta alba, Artemisia scoparia, Echinops echinatus, Cousinea minuta, Silybum marianum, Sassura candiacns, Carthamus oxyacantha and Sonchus arvensis (Table 3). Along with Asteraceae and Chenopodiacea, nine associated species belonging to seven different families were also found as co-dominants. These were Calotropis procera, Achyranthus aspera, Polygonum plebejum, Withania somnifera, Melilotus parviflora, Dicanthium annulatun and Cyanodon dactylon (Table 2).

The Wahga site (S2) A total of 12 species were found. Along with common species the other species of Asteraceae and Chenopodiaceae were Blumea membranacea, Pseudognephalium luteo-album, Cotula hemispherica, Sassurea candicans and Sonchus oleracious (Table 3).

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Table 2. A list of families and their species in association with Asteraceae and Chenopodiaceae in selected sites of Lahore District.

S/N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Family Amaranthaceae Asclepiadaceae Caryophyllaceae Cyperaceae Nyctaginaceae Oxalidaceae

Poaceae

Polygonaceae Polygonaceae Primulaceae Solanaceae

Species name Acyranthes aspera L. Amaranthus viridis L. Calotropis procera (Ait.) Ait. f Stellaria media (L.) Vill. Cyperus rotundus L. Boerhavia diffusa L. Oxalis corniculata L. Cenchrus biflorus Roxb. Polypogon monospeliensis (L.) Desf. Dicanthium annulatum (Forssk.) Stapf. Phalaris minor Retz. Desmostachya bipinnata (L.) Stapf. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. Polygonum plebejum R.Br. Rumex dentatus L. Phyla nudiflora Withania somnifera

Along with Asteraceae, nine different species belonging to eight families were also present. These were Achyranthus aspera, Calotropis procera, Amaranthus viridus, Dicanthium annulatum, Oxalis corniculata, Boerhavia diffusa, Withania somnifera, Cyprus rotundus and Rumex dentates (Table 2). Mohlanwall site (S3) In S3 site, seven species were found. Along with common species other species of Asteraceae were Ageratum conyzoides, Gnephalium polycanton (Table 3). Along with Asteraceae, seven associated species of six different families were found. These were Achyranthus aspera, Polygonum plebejum, Dicanthium annulatum, Rumex dentatus, Phyla nodiflora, Withania somnifera and Desmostachya bipinnata (Table 2). Archaeological site (S4) In S4 site, seven species were found. The members of Asteraceae which were investigated were Conyza stricta and Vernonia cinera (Table 3). Along with Asteraceae, four subassociates belonging to four different families were found. These were Calotropis procera, Amaranthus viridis, Cynodon dactylon and Boerhavia diffusa (Table 2).

Raiwind site (S5) In S5 site, 12 species were found. This site also showed

Site S1, S2, S3, S6 S2, S4, S6 S1, S2, S4, S6 S2, S3, S5 S2 S2, S4 S2, S6 S1, S2, S3 S5 S6 S5, S2 S2, S3, S5 S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 S1, S3, S5 S2, S3, S5 S3 S1, S5, S6

the highest diversity. Along with common species the species which were found were Ageratum conyzoides, Blumea lacera, Laggera aurita, Eclipta alba, Crepis japonica, Sonchus arvensis, Chenopodium ambrosoides (Table 3). Along with nine associated species, eight different families were also found. These were Polygonum plebejum, Rumex dentatus, Polypogon monosplensis, Phalaris minor, Ranunculus scleratus, Melilotus parviflora, Desmostachya bipinnata, Anagalis arvensis and Dicanthium annulatum (Table 2).

The Gymkhana road and drain site (S6) Four species were found only in this site and also showed poor diversity, but spatial heterogeneity was observed among the species. This site included all the common species (Table 3). Other than common species, the five associated species belonging to five families were found. These were Calotropis procera, Acyranthus aspera, Amaranthus viridus, Stelaria media, Oxalis corniculata, Withania somnifera, Cenchrus biflorus and Cyanodon dactylon (Table 2). Comparison with Kashyap’s work The present study focused on six different sites of Lahore District. The comparison with the Lahore District flora by Kashyap showed that Asteraceae was divided into 15 different tribes and 191 genera. Tribe Anthemideae was divided among 22 species: Arctoteae had two genera;

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Table 3. List showing the presence or absence of Asteraceae in selected sites of Lahore District.

S/N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Plant name Ageratum conyzoides L. Artemisia scoparia Waldst Blumea lacera DC B. memberanacea DC Carthamus oxyacantha Bieb. Carthamus tinctorius Bieb. Cichorium intybus L. Cnicus argycaranthus Hoffm. Cnicus arvensis Hoffm. Conyza ambigua DC. C. stricta Willd. Cousinia minuta Boiss Cotula hemisphaerica (Roxb) Wall.ex Benth & Hook. F. Crepis japonica Benth. Echinops echinatus DC. Eclipta alba Hassk. Gnaphalium polycanton L. Laggera aurita Schultz-Bip Launia nudicaulis L. Parthenium hysterophorus L. Pentanema vestitum Wall. ex. DC. Pseudognaphalium luteo-album Lub. Pulicaria undulata (L) C.A. Meyer Sassurea candicans Clarke Silybum marianum Gaertn. Sonchus arvensis L. S. asper Hill. S. oleraceous L. Vernonia cinerea Less. Xanthium strumarium L.

Astereae, 17 genera; Calenduleae, two genera; Cardueae, 37 genera; Eupatorieae, three genera; Gnaphalieae, 13 genera; Heliantheae, 21 genera; Helenieae, four genera; Inuleae, 13 genera; Lactuceae, 36 genera; Mutisieae, four genera; Plucheeae, five genera; Senecioneae, nine genera and Vernonieae, only three genera. As a whole, the family Asteraceae was distributed in Lahore in 10 different tribes, 23 genera and 29 species. Kashyap and Joshi (1936) reported that Compositae had 34 genera distributed among 47 different species. Tribes were absent in Kashyap and Joshi’s (1936) study. He simply divided the species into their respective genera. The results of the present investigation have provided sufficient information for assessing the impact of urbanization on the removal of indigenous species. Maximum diversity and richness was observed in S1 site because the soil of this area has moderate amount of

Family/tribe name Eupatorieae Anthemideae Inuleae Inuleae Cardueae Cardueae Lactuceae

Astereae Astereae Cardueae Anthemideae Lactuceae Cardueae Heliantheae Gnaphalieae Pluchee Lactuceae Heliantheae Inuleae Gnaphalieae Inuleae Cardueae Cardueae Lactuceae Lactuceae Lactuceae Vernonieae Heliantheae

S1 + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

S2 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

S3 + + + + + + + +

S4 + + + + + + + + -

S5 + + + + + + + + + + + -

S6 + + + + + -

nutrients and BRB canal is passing through the area, which continuously provides moisture. These results are in conformity with that of Ricklefs and Schluter (1993) who recognized that peaks of diversity occur at intermediate levels of nutrient resources. Species richness (9) found in S4 site which is an archaeological site was lower than that of other sites. V. cinera Less. and Conyza stricta Willd. were present only in this site. This may be due to the protection of the site, which is important in encouraging the suppression of invasion by those species which were not present before. This was also reported by Hatough et al. (1986). S1 site contained the highest species richness and diversity (17 species, H = 3.1). The study areas received uneven rainfall and phytogeographically fall in sub-humid subtropical region (Anonymous, 2005). This transition results in high and low rainfall, allowing some areas to have high specie richness and some with low species richness. These results are in accordance with Maria et

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al. (2007) who reported that high and low rainfall alters the species composition but the species diversity is more or less similar along the rainfall gradient. Study area, Lahore, is the second largest city of Pakistan where urbanization is taking place at a striking rate with inadequate development of the requisite infrastructure. Such anthropogenic activities give rise to the congestion, pollution and commuting time issues (Amjad et al., 2005). Previous data indicated that invasion by exotic plants both deliberately and naturally modified the natural landscape of Lahore (Khan and Rashid, 1994; Ejaz, 2002). Low diversity and floristic poorness of S4 and S6 showed its status and the degree of disturbances like the protection of the site and construction of roads respectively, which is important in encouraging the suppression of invasion by those species which were not present before. This is also reported by Hatough et al. (1986). Two new species not mentioned in Lahore District flora, Parthenium hysteropohorus and Pantanema vestitum were also reported. P. hysteropohorus is a recent introduction in the sub-continent native of Mexico and Central America (Navie et al., 1996). In Pakistan too, it is a recent introduction, as it was not included in flora of Punjab given by Parker (1956), common plant of waste places, road sides, cultivated ground, degraded soil, along water canal, railway track and recently cropped areas. The reason for the rapid spread is due to strong competitive power, thereby having an ability to outcompete indigenous flora. The plant becomes a menace by exercising invasive qualities and spreading rapidly (Ejaz, 2002) as compared with flora. Site S3 possesses abundance and diversity of the vegetation which was severely affected and the area along River Ravi was changed into derelict habitat which had less vegetation. It is concluded that many factors like urbanization, invasive plants, changes in land use and also the irrigation system cumulatively alter the natural vegetation. Therefore, effective planning to combat the problems should be done to provide more greener area, low temperature heat island and the suppression of invasion. This would ultimately improve the ecosystem structure and function. REFERENCES Amjad S, Almas A, Rahim CA, Butt MJ, Shah TI (2005). ISPRS Workshop on Service and Application of Spatial Data Infrastructure, 35I (4/W6), Hangzhou, China. Alberti M, Marzarzluff JM, Shulenberge E, Gradley G, Ryan C, Zimbrunnen C (2003). Integrated humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystem. Biol. Sci., 53: 11691179. Ali SI, Qaiser M 1992-2007). Flora of Pakistan. Nos, pp.194-208. Anonymous (2005). Land Resource Inventory and Agriculture Land use Plan of Lahore District. Soil Survey Report of Pakistan Lahore. Brower JE, Jerrold HZ (1977). Field and laboratory methods for

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