Homestead plant diversity in the south-central coastal saline region of Bangladesh: utilization and conservation

The present study has found a total of 189 plant species belonging to 152 genera and 74 families growing
in homesteads in the south-central coastal region of Bangladesh. Despite variation of species diversity was
found in different saline zones the highest numbers of species were recorded in moderately saline zone.
Distribution of existing plant species were recorded as 67.20% trees and 32.80% were woody, non-woody
and climber types. The family Euphorbiaceae followed by Poaceae and Fabaceae represented highest
number of species. On an average, 181 species existed per homestead. Distribution of species in different
saline zones varied and it was highest in less saline zone (37.16%) followed by strongly saline (32.55%),
and moderately saline (30.29%) zones. The most prevalent timber tree species are Albizia richardiana,
Swietenia macrophylla and Samanea saman. Adaptation of different species in various saline zones widely
varied due to different levels of salinity while Cocos nucifera as fruit species was almost equally dominant
in all saline zones. The diversity indices of different categories of plant species varied in various saline
zones. Diversity of timber-yielding species in all the saline zones was higher than fruit-yielding species
along with other species because of rapid economic return and diversified purposes such as fuel wood, pole
and timber. Prevalence value of good number of species decreased at a very low level may be considered
as gradually decreasing from homesteads of this region. Species need to preserve in the homesteads
through in-situ conservation measure.