Floristic Composition of Woody vegitation with Emphasis to Ethnobotanical importance of Wild Legumes in Laelay and Tahtay Maichew districts, Central zone, Tigray, Ethiopia
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Date
2012-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was focussed on the floristic composition of woody plants and ethnobotanical
importance of legumes in Laelay and Tahtay Maichew, central zone, Tigray. To study woody
plants study sites were selected via preferential sampling in protected, mountains and degraded
watershades following survey. At the end of the day, sixty (60) plots were laid down. Interviews
were conducted with informants and field observations were made to collect Ethnobotanical
data. Statistical tools like hierarchial cluster analysis and Shannon-Wiener diversity index were
used for vegetation data analysis. Preferential ranking was also applied for Ethnobotanical data
analysis. As a result 57 woody species and 8 herbaceous legumes were identified. The most
species rich family was Fabaceae with 13 species. The result of cluster analysis show that, five
community types with distinct species number and the community types found in protected areas
have more species than unprotected ones. The prefertial ranking for ethnobotanical study of
legumes show that, widely used plants for food and farm implements are Ziziphus spina-christi
and Acacia lahai respectivelly. The traditional medicinal knowledge is acquired more from
parents in the area. The major threats of woody plants are cutting, continuous cultivation and
overgrazing Woody. Meanwhile plantations are the main conservation practices applied in the
areas to conserve and facilitate regeneration of woody plants.
KEY WORDS and PHARASES: Woody plants, cluster analysis, Ethnobotany, legumes,
plantation
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Woody plants, cluster analysis, Ethnobotany, legumes, plantation