A note on the population status and threats on two endemic and Endangered species of Garcinia of Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The genus Garcinia comprises c. 35 species in India many of which are endemic and economically important with immense medicinal properties. The two species viz., Garcinia imberti and G. travancorica are lesser-known endemic medium-sized straight-stemmed trees with horizontal branches. The trees are distributed in the restricted forest areas (700–1,500 m) of Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve. Both the species are dioecious trees and have male and female flowers in two different individuals, sometimes at a distance of a few kilometers from each other. A large number of mature individuals of these species have been over-exploited from Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve and therefore a few mature individuals and seedlings alone exist. The populations were severely fragmented and exist in a few locations of natural forest areas. The number of mature individuals recorded in G. imbertI and G. travancorica was 127±14 and 112±14 respectively in the entire distributional areas. There was an extreme fluctuation observed every year in the case of flowering and fruiting and also in the number of individuals due to the disturbance in the forest ecosystem. Both species have been included under IUCN threatened category and therefore they need effective conservation measures.

Keywords

• dioecious
• garcinia imberti
• garcinia travancorica.