CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SAVANNA VEGETATION OUTLIER IN OKHUESAN ESAN SOUTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

life science

Okhuesan Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State depict the occurrence of mesic savanna vegetation outlier in a forest zone which is rare and isolated case in nature. In this study, the species composition and diversity were record. A check list of plant species was documented and they were catalogued according to their taxonomic names, habit and life form. The result of the survey showed a total of 120 plant species belonging to 51 families and 89 Genera. Fabaceae have the highest number of species 12 followed by poaceae with 11 species, Euphorbiaceae with 9 species, Asteraceae 6 and Apocynaceae 5 species while Amaranthaceae, Commelinaceae and Cyperaceae had 4, 3 and 4 species respectively. Based on the plant habit classification, 40 species (33.3%) were herbs, 11 (9.17%) Grasses, 4 (3.33%) sedge species, 4 (3.33%) vine species, 33 tree species(27.5%) and 27 shrubs (22.5%).The life form of the species were categorized using the classification system formulated by Raunkiaer. The result showed that 5(4.17%) were Mega Phanerophytes, 20 (16.7%) Meso-Phanerophyte, 20 (16.7%) Micro Phanerophyte, 2(1.67%) Nano Phanerophyte, 21 (17.5%) Chamaephyte, 34(28.3%) Hemicryptophyte, 2(1.67%) Geophytes and 7 (5.8%) Therophyte.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.