Composition and community structure of Olea ferruginea Royle forests in Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract

ABSTRACTOlea ferruginea Royle is a wild Olive species commonly known as Indian or African Olive. In India, it is distributed in the Northwestern Himalaya, from Jammu and Kashmir to Uttarakhand, at an altitude of up to 2400 m amsl. The present study aims to determine the composition and community structure of Olea L. forests in Jammu and Kashmir, India. During the present study, 21 sites were surveyed from September 2019‒August 2021 and a total of 34 plant species belonging to 32 genera and 22 families were recorded. Fabaceae was the dominant family with five species followed by Moraceae (four species) and Fagaceae, Rosaceae, Malvaceae, Meliaceae, and Salicaceae (two species each). A total of 1333 individuals of trees were recorded including 362 individuals of Olea ferruginea. From the dendrogram resulting from Ward’s cluster analysis of 21 sites based on presence/absence data, five communities were identified on the basis of the Importance Value Index (IVI). The species richness and diversity indices showed great differences from community to community. The present study provides baseline information about the community structure and biological associations of Olea ferruginea.

Keywords

• Indian Himalayan region
• Olea ferruginea
• vegetation structure
• species composition