Abstract:
Ban oak is an ecologically and economically important species of Himalayan region which experiences a problem in its regeneration due to various factors in forests. The present investigation entitled “Floor management studies at different locations and elevations of
Quercus leucotrichophora A Camus” was carried out during the year 2018-19 in Chail forests of district Solan, Kufri forests of district Shimla, Sarahan and Churdhar forests in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh with three elevations i.e., E1 (<1500 m), E2 (1500-1800 m) and E3 (>1800 m) in each to assess the effect of different floor management treatments. The floor management was carried out by plotting 2 m x 2 m beds for each treatment at each elevation as: P
1 (Without removal of leaf litter (Control)), P
2 (Removal of leaf litter, P
3 (Hoeing i.e., 15 cm approx, without removal of leaf litter), P
4 (Hoeing i.e. 15 cm approx, with removal of leaf litter) with three replications. The results showed that P
3 was best among all other treatments for regeneration, growth of seedlings and biomass while P
4 treatment showed least effect on acorn germination and other seedling parameters. The natural regeneration under floor management was highest in Kufri forests and can be concluded as: Kufri forests > Chail forests > Churdhar forests > Sarahan forests.
Rajeev Dhiman, CL Thakur, Varun Attri and Dinesh Kumar Pal. Floor management studies at different locations and elevations of Quercus leucotrichophora a Camus. J Pharmacogn Phytochem 2020;9(5S):844-852.