Floral Diversity of Abandoned Mansions and the Influence of Soil Properties on These Unique Vegetations

Abstract

Abandoned land and mansions are always a matter of curiosity to the human beings. They are treated as haunted places in many societies. In the present research, three decrepit abandoned mansions from the southern Bangladesh were investigated to measure their floral diversity, physico-chemical properties of soil and the soil-plant interrelationship which is responsible for the diversification of wild flora within the regions. From Shannon and Simpson diversity indexes, it can be deducted that the floral diversity within the abandoned mansions has a positive relationship with their territory size. The high values of Margalef's and Menhinick's species richness indexes confirmed that these areas are a rich source of a large number of plant species. A great variation in soil physico-chemical properties has been observed during the analysis. Soil organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium & moisture contents were varied significantly from one quadrat to another in every site. Biplot analysis showed that the distribution of plant species in abandoned mansions is primarily determined by the organic matter, pH, moisture and potassium contents of soil. As these factors were present in versatile distribution within the studied regions, a great number of plants can grow in the same area simultaneously. So these areas should be protected from human intervention to process natural selection and in situ conservation of plant species.