AbstractPhytosociology is the study of the characteristics, classification, relationship and distribution of plant communities and it is useful to collect to describe the population dynamics of each species studied and how they relate to the other species in the same community. Phytosociological studies are essential for protecting the natural plant communities and biodiversity as well as understanding the changes experienced in the past and continuing on in to the future The present study, titled “Phytosociological analysis of trees and plant species in Batakote block of the Lidder Forest Division of Jammu and Kashmir” was carried out to examine the variation of diversity and community structure of plant and tree species. The results revealed that these four different altitudes harbor a total of 53 plant species belonging to 37 families. Of these reported 53 plant species, 14 species were trees, representing 10 families and 10 species were shrubs belonging to 8 families. The number of herbaceous species was 29 representing 22 families. Among trees, Pinus wallichiana was dominant at all four altitudes with IVI values of 95.17, 103.56, 97.90 and 83.81, respectively. Among shrubs, Parrotia jacquemontiana was dominant at altitude 1 with IVI value of 62.87. At altitude 2ndSambucus wightiana was dominant having IVI value of 50.88 and Rosa rubiginosa was dominant at altitude 3rd and 4th with IVI values of 64.98 and 67.51, respectively. Among herbs, Cynodon dactylon withIVI value of 83.59 was dominant at altitude 1st. Fragaraia vesca was dominant at altitude 2nd and 3rd with IVI values of 89.70 and 131.73 , respectively. Aconitum heterophyllum with IVI value of 122.37 was dominant at 4th altitude. Out of four altitudes, altitude 2nd reported the highest number of species followed by 1st, 3rd and 4th, respectively.
Akhter et al. (Thu,) studied this question.