Checklist of Mosses ( Bryophyta ) of Bodamalai Hills in Eastern Ghats , Tamil Nadu

sahayasathish@yahoo.in Abstract Bodamalai Hills, situated on the Southern Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, were explored for mosses (bryophyta) for the first time. As a result a checklist of mosses has been prepared comprising 52 species belonging to 38 genera and 21 families. The dominant families with the maximum number of species are Pottiaceae, Bryaceae, Stereophyllaceae, Sematophyllaceae and Brachytheciaceae. The dominant genera are Brachymenium and Bryum and the dominant species are Barbula javanica and Bryum capillare.


Introduction
Bryophytes were the pioneers to colonize a terrestrial habitat from an aquatic one.They are the second largest group of terrestrial plants next to angiosperms (Chopra, 1975).They represent a heterogeneous assemblage of plants which include liverworts (Marchantiophyta), hornworts (Anthocerophyta) and mosses (Bryophyta) that impart lush greenery, a verdant cover, spongy bed or carpet in every possible habitat.They colonize on rocks, road-side cuts, walls and old monument remains, as epiphytes on trees, logs, stumps, leaves and forest floors.The Indian sub-continent is bestowed with a wide range of phytogeographical regions with varied ecological conditions.Currently about 2,489 taxa of bryophytes have been reported from India (Dandotiya et al., 2011).In recent years floristic studies on the bryophytes of the Eastern Ghats have been made by (Kumar and Krishnamurthy, 2007;Sahaya Sathish, 2013;Rani et al., 2014;Sathish et al., 2014;Biju andDaniels, 2016 andMishra et al., 2016).Studies on the ecology and distribution of bryophytes along the north coastal zone of the Andhra Pradesh in the Eastern Ghats have been made by (Murty et al., 2011, Rao and Rao, 2013, and Dash et al., 2009).4"46' -12° 53"30' North latitude and 77° 32"52' -78°5 3"05' East longitude.The maximum elevation of the hills is ca 1, 200 m (Sathiyaraj & al., 2015;Fig. 1. a, b).

Materials and Methods
Collections were made following traditional methods.Surveys were carried out from August 2013 to March 2016 immediately after monsoon rains.Simple methodology was adopted to collect specimens in the field.A knife was used to peel off specimens from tree barks, rocks and other substrata.Specimens were dried at room temperature on blotting paper and placed carefully in brown paper envelopes of dimension 15 × 10 cm.Collection details were noted including locality, date of collection, habitat type, altitude etc. Identifications were made with the help of Gangulee's 'Mosses of Eastern India and Adjacent Regions ' (1969-1980), Manju et al., Bryophytes of Wayanad in Western Ghats (2005) and other related works and also by comparing with protologues.All moss taxa included in the list were checked against the database (www.tropicos.organd www.theplantlist.org) and Daniels (2010) concerning current acceptable nomenclature.

Results and Discussion
The present study on the mosses of Bodamalai hills reveals the occurrence of a total number of 52 species belonging to 38 genera and 21 families, (Table 1).The most diverse order is Hypnales with 14 species, 11 genera and 7 families followed by Pottiales with 12 species belonging to 10 genera and 1 families and Bryales with 12 species, 6 genera and 4 families.The most predominant family is Pottiaceae comprising 10 genera and 12 species followed by Bryaceae with 3 genera and 10 species (Fig. 2 -3).Most of the species are rupicolous and a few are lignicolous and only on species folicolous.The evergreen forests in the study area harbour a maximum of 33 species.On the contrary, plantations harbour only 5 species.This observation highlights the need for conservation of the relict, fragmented evergreen forests.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Representation of different orders of mosses of Bodamalai hills

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Percentage Distribution of different orders of Mosses of Bodamalai hills