Nawaf Abubakar¹, Sanusi Junaidu²*, Sanusi Liadi² and Muhammad Abdu Bugaje²

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria
²Department of Biology, Isa Kaita College Education, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Sanusi Junaidu, Department of Biology, Isa Kaita College Education, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria.

Received: December 11, 2023; Published: January 12, 2024

Abstract

Plants are used for food, aesthetic purposes, money generating, nutritional supplements, and therapeutic purposes. There is need for taxonomic checking, for giving information on planning and sustainable exploitation, due to the strain that the ever-increasing demand for plant products has placed on the numerous beneficial species. In this study, the diversity and abundance of plant species at the Biological garden of Federal University Lokoja, Adankolo Campus Kogi State, Nigeria was assessed. The University biological garden was divided into two sampling sites for accurate recording of species, line transect of 20m was laid using a rope and a quadrat of size 1mx1m was used to sample plant species in each plot. Systematic sampling method was adopted. Result reveals a total of 21 individual plants of 13 tree species, 4 herbaceous species and 4 shrub species from 17 families were encountered. The dominant families are Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Malvaceae. Monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants account for 29% and 71% of plants available in the sampled sites respectively. Few numbers of plants encountered were exotic while others were native. Angiosperms had 19 representatives (90.48%) while gymnosperms had 2 representatives (9.52 %). Andropogon gayanus was the most abundant plant species. Plants such as Aplectrum hyemale, Ficus carica, Vitellaria paradoxa, Vitex gratifolia had relative density < 1 and as such may be considered threatened within the study area. Weighted Jaccards’ Coefficient indices was 0.38, 0.68, 0.50 for trees, herbs and shrub species respectively from both site A and B. Sites A and B are 98% alike when Simpson's diversity index is used to compare diversity levels. The study showed that it is necessary that the garden be given adequate and effective protection from anthropogenic disturbance and unrestricted trespassing. Awareness and orientation on the sustainable uses of plants and importance of botanical gardens and effort should be geared towards sustainable management of fragile species.

Keywords: Anthropogenic Activities; Biodiversity; Plant Assessment; Plant Diversity

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Citation

Citation: Sanusi Junaidu., et al. “Assessment of Plant Abundance and Diversity in the Biological Garden, Federal University Lokoja, Adankolo Campus, Kogi State, Nigeria".Acta Scientific Biotechnology 5.1 (2024): 03-08.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Sanusi Junaidu., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.