A phytosociological study on Gnetum gnemon L. patches in different forests of Northeast India

Phytosociological study across 12 Gnetum gnemon strands in Northeast (NE) India were undertaken to understand the ecological behaviour of the species where a total of 103 plant species belonging to 70 genera under 30 families were documented grown in association with Gnetum gnemon. Rubiaceae was the most dominant family followed by Lamiaceae and Ardisia, Calamus, Clerodendrum and Psychotria were the dominant genera in those strands. Diversity indices revealed Behali (H’ = 3.39, 1-D = 0.96) having highest diversity and Noxatilla (H’ = 2.59, 1-D = 0.92) having the lowest. Simpson’s Evenness index (E) was highest in Barail (0.90) and lowest in Dhansiri (0.70) whereas the Sorensen-Dice similarity indices varied from 16.33 % to 87.72 % showing overall low similarity among the study-sites. Though Gnetum gnemon was dominant with highest IVI values at Chala; in other strands, it occupied lower position in the list which could be attributed to high extraction by the local people, habitat fragmentation and invasion by some native and non-native invasive plants which were outnumbered in and around 6 Gnetum gnemon strands out of 12 studied strands.