• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 1998

'Banafsha' is an important herbal drug of indigenous systems of medicine. Flowers of Viola odornta L. (Violaceae) are considered to constitute the genuine drug 'Banafsha'. However, due to limited distribution of this plant, another species of Viola, i.e. V. pilosa having almost similar medicinal properties, is mostly used under this vernacular instead. Ethnobotanically also different species of Viola i.e. V. odorata, V. pilosa and V. betonicifolia are used for various ailments at different places in our country. In the present study two species of Viola, namely V. pilosa and V. betonictfolia along with the commercial samples of 'Banafsha' were studied and authenticated. It was observed that the market samples procured from Dehradun, Mumbai, Lucknow, Palampur, Ramnagar and Ranikhet showed close resemblance with Viola pilosa in having similar morphological characters like uniseriate hairs on the ovary, geniculate and clavate style, truncate stigma and almost similar TLC profiles. On the other hand the Almora sample was identified as Viola betonicifolia by the presence of large purple flowers, clavate style and convex stigma forming hump like structure. However, the market sample procured from Pathankot was found to be a mixture of two species of Viola namely, V pilosa and V. odorata having dominance of the former species.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.105-131
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• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of Gyodongdo island (Ganghwa-gun). The vascular plants from 11 field surveys were revealed to belong to a total of 629 taxa; 118 families, 364 genera, 561 species, 5 subspecies, 53 varieties, 7 forms and 3 hybrids. 184 taxa were the first records from this region. The plants in Gyodongdo island are composed of the deciduous broad-leaved and conifer-mixed forests which are the common ones in the middle part of the Korean Peninsula. Five taxa of Korean endemic plants such as Clematis brachyura Maxim., Viola seoulensis Nakai, Populus ${\times}$ tomentiglandulosa T. B. Lee, Forsythia koreana (Rehder) Nakai and Hemerocallis hakuunensis Nakai were collected. Endangered wild plants designated by the law called 'Protection Law for Endangered wild fauna and flora' were one taxon. The red list plants according to IUCN valuation basis were examined for 13 taxa; endangered (EN) species of Prunus yedoensis Matsum., Vulnerable (VU) species of both Utricularia pilosa (Makino) Makino and Iris ruthenica var. nana Maxim., Near Threatened (NT) species of Senecio argunensis Turcz., Least Concern (LC) species of Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco, Potentilla discolor Bunge, Limnophila sessiliflora (Vahl) Blume, Acorus calamus L., Phacelurus latifolius (Steud.) Ohwi, Pseudoraphis ukishiba Ohwi, Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC., and Not Evaluate (NE) species of both Astragalus sikokianus Nakai and Potamogeton oxyphyllus Miq. The floristic regional indicator plants found in this area were a total of 47 taxa comprising three taxa of grade V, four taxa of grade IV, nine taxa of grade III, 10 taxa of grade II, and 21 taxa of grade I. The naturalized plants were identified as 62 taxa and the percentage of naturalized index (NI) was 9.9 % and the percentage of urbanization index (UI) was 19.3 %, respectively. Furthermore, hemicryptophytes (28 %), therophytes (26 %), hydrophytes (13 %) and geophyte (12 %) showed high proportional ratio in life form spectrum.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.6-24
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• 2019

We have investigated the impact of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on regeneration, composition and diversity in some temperate forests of Bhagirathi Catchment Area of Garhwal Himalaya. The forests were categorized on the basis of canopy cover and magnitude of disturbance into highly, moderately and least disturbed classes. The dominant tree species at lower elevation were Pinus roxburghii and Quercus leucotrichophora, while Abies pindrow, Q. semecarpifolia and Rhododenron arboreum were the dominant species at the upper elevational forests. Cythula tomentosa and Indegophera heterentha were the dominant shrub species present in all the forests. Similarly, Circium wallichii and Oxalis corniculata were the dominant herb species found in all forests (except Q. leucotrichophora forest), whereas Thalictrum foliolosum and Viola pilosa were noticed in each forest (except P. roxburghii forest). The tree density values oscillated between $400{\pm}10\;trees\;ha^{-1}$ to $750{\pm}89.1\;trees\;ha^{-1}$ which generally decreased from lower to higher disturbance regimes however, the total basal cover value was highest ($88.1{\pm}23.6m^2\;ha^{-1}$) in highly disturbed forest and lowest ($25.8{\pm}2.2m^2\;ha^{-1}$) in moderately disturbed forest. The shrub and herb densities were maximum in least disturbed forest, while the young regenerating individuals i.e., sapling and seedling were observed increasing from high to low disturbed forests which reflected that the forest fragmentation adversely affected the regeneration. However, A. pindrow and P. roxburghii were found invariably encroaching the habitats of R. arboreum and Q. leucotrichophora at various altitudes, respectively. The Canonical Correspondence Analysis clearly indicated that the elevation and lopping intensity have more impact on trees, while shrub and herbs were more influenced by elevation, canopy cover, light attenuation and soil erosion. Pinus roxburghii was the only species which was affected by heavy litter removal and forest fire.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.248-270
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to collect the raw data for conservation of plant ecosystem by surveying and analysing the flora of Mt. Geumgok located in Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. The flora were summarized as 453 taxa including 91 families, 298 genera, 397 species, 4 subspecies, 46 varieties and 6 forms. The rare plants designated by Korea Forest Service were 3 taxa such as Eranthis byunsanensis B.Y.Sun, Potentilla discolor Bunge and Iris odaesanensis Y.N.Lee. The Korean endemic plants were 6 taxa such as Carpinus laxiflora (Siebold & Zucc.) Blume, Eranthis byunsanensis B.Y.Sun, Philadelphus schrenkii Rupr., Lespedeza maritima Nakai, Vicia chosenensis Ohwi and Weigela subsessilis (Nakai) L.H.Bailey. The specific plants by floristic region were 36 taxa such as Pinus koraiensis Siebold & Zucc., Salix chaenomeloides Kimura, Anemone raddeana Regel, Chloranthus japonicus Siebold, Euphorbia pekinensis Rupr., Ilex macropoda Miq., Ajuga multiflora Bunge, Saussurea odontolepis Sch.Bip. ex Herd, Viola orientalis (Maxim.) W.Becker, Betula davurica Pall., Vitex negundo var. incisa (Lam.) C.B.Clarke and Cimicifuga heracleifolia Kom.. The naturalized plants were 36 taxa such as Fallopia dumetorum (L.) Holub, Lepidium apetalum Willd., Robinia pseudoacacia L., Trifolium repens L., Euphorbia supina Raf., Ipomoea purpurea Roth, Veronica persica Poir., Bidens pilosa L., Carduus crispus L., Xanthium canadense Mill., Bromus unioloides H.B.K. and Festuca arundinacea Schreb.. The invasive alien plants were 2 taxa such as Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. and Aster pilosus Willd.. The ratios of the urbanized index(UI), the naturalized index(NI) and the disturbed index(DI) were 11.2%, 7.9% and 18.2% each.