International Journal of Botany and Research (IJBR) ISSN (P): 2277–4815; ISSN (E): 2319–4456 Vol. 11, Issue 2, Dec 2021, 39–56 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.
DIVERSITY OF FICUS L. (MORACEAE) AND ITS USES IN SIKKIM HIMALAYAS (INDIA) CHUZING LEPCHA & BISHNU K. SHARMA Department of Botany, Sikkim Government College, Namchi, India ABSTRACT The paper deals with diversity and uses of various aspects in the field of medicine, artifacts, livelihood, folklore and ethnobotany of genus Ficus occurring within the state of Sikkim Himalayas. A list of different types of Ficus species found in Sikkim has been prepared. A total of 115 taxa have been categorised out of which 36 species have been recorded in Sikkim according to the accessible information and published records. Ficus species plays an important role in supporting the lives of common people by providing edible products, as fodder, medicine and as religious value. All the species provided with their nomenclature, taxonomy, synonyms, distribution and uses has been examined. KEYWORDS: Diversity, Ficus, Fodder, Medicine & Sikkim
1. INTRODUCTION Ficus L. is the largest genus of Moraceae family, it has a total of 755 species worldwide (Corner, 1958, 1960, 1965 and Berg & Corner, 2005). The genus has been classified into six subgenera, 19 sections and 27 subsections based on morphological features and distributional pattern (Ramirez, 1977; Berg & Corner, 2005).
Original Article
Received: Oct 07, 2021; Accepted: Oct 27, 2021; Published: Nov 08, 2021; Paper Id.: IJBRDEC20216
King (1887-88) was the first to give systematic account of the Indian Ficus in which he had recorded 113 species and 47 infraspecific taxa from whole British India out of which only 75 species and 16 infraspecific taxa were reported from India (King, 1888). Recently, the genus has been classified into six genera, 19 sections and 27 subsections based on morphological features and distributional pattern (Gamble, 1972; Ramirez, 1977 and Berg & Corner, 2005). In India, there are 115 species were distributed throughout the region, out of 115 only 10 are endemic (Flora of China, 2003). The species available in the North- East region shows resemblance with Chinese Region while the species of the Peninsular region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Duthie, 1915; Flora of China, 2003; Pandey & Diwakar. 2008). There are 36 Ficus species reported from Nepal (Kunwar & Bussmann, 2006). 99 Ficus species, 16 endemic, 2 introduced from China (Flora of China, 2003), 54 Ficus species from Andaman-Nicobar Island (Pandey & Diwakar. 2008; Tiwari, et. al., 2014). The north-east region may be considered as the Hotspot region of India for the genus Ficus L. because it alone consists of about 43 Ficus species, which is highest among all Indian states (Chaudhary et. al., 2012). Sikkim lies in the North-Eastern part of India, bordered by Tibet in the north, Bhutan in the east, Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim has an altitude range from 280 meters in the South at the border with West Bengal to 8,586 meters in the Northern peaks near Nepal and Tibet. It has a total area of 7,096 Km 2. The Ficus species plays an important role to support the lives of the common people, such as a fodder, religious model,
www.tjprc.org
editor@tjprc.org