Fern and fern allies diversity from the Northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra

Abstract

Ferns and fern allies are seedless vascular plants traditionally referred to as pteridophytes. Pteridophytes are major components of tropical flora, but they show lower extant species diversity than seed plants. Western Ghats, is one of the world's richest areas in terms of its diversity of pteridophyte species, with an occurrence of no less than 320 species. Although this number appears to be an overestimate due to the presence of taxa that are typically synonymized in families with no published revisions of the flora. Thus, the present study was undertaken to analyse present status of pteridophytes with respect to their distribution, habitat and conservation status of the world’s most fascinating and important area for pteridology.