Grass Flora of Tonk Region

Abstract

Grasses are the gems of the plant kingdom; they are the reason for the development of civilization over the cultures. Grasses are typical food for people all over the world. Giant wheat, rice, Bajra, maize and sugarcane are the result of the long grasses cultivation over thousands of years by men in different civilizations. The grasses are the typical members of the Gramineae family; the leaves are long and grains and spikelet are the part of the plant that has commercial value. The cultivation, processing and harvesting of grasses is the main economic consideration of theses group of plants. They are one of the chief commercial values plants in the world. Grasses are very valuable from ecological as well as economic point of view. The ecology of the grasses is very important as they harbour associative kind of nitrogen fixation in the soil; also the soil binder prospect of their roots is also very useful feature for the succession process of the plant in an ecosystem. They represent the giant and large ecosystem of the world—the Savana and Steppes. In the US Midwest, they are often termed as the ‘Prairies’. In South America, they are known as the ‘Pampas’. Grassland ecosystems are found at places that have not enough rainfall due to low pressures. They are the undisturbed ecosystem, harbouring the unique faunas associated with them. Grasses represent about 900 generas as well as 70000 species all over the world. Many of them are uninvestigated from the phytochemistry point of view as well as the exact taxonomic categorization and other application in several fields. So the bioprospecting of grasses is very valuable from ecological as well as economic point of view. In the present research article, we have focussed on the grass flora of the Tonk district, Rajasthan, India. The given area is not studied prior; although the area is very large we have tried to work on the major agriculture lands. More extensive research work is required for exact enumeration of the grass flora of this area; however, we have tried to pioneer in that area. Overall the research work is valuable for the students of plant taxonomy as well as for further bioprospecting of grasses in several areas.