Legumes (Fabaceae) from Satmala hills, Maharashtra, India

on Satmala hill ranges. First author is thankful to Dr. Jagdish V. Dalavi for his cooperation during compilation of data.


INTRODUCTION
The family Fabaceae or Leguminosae is one of the socio-economically important families in Angiosperms.It is commonly known as legume, pea, or bean family.This family members possess all types of habits such as herbs, trees, shrubs, and climbers.It is easily recognised by their pods (legume).Fabaceae Lindl. is the third largest family of angiosperms in terms of number of taxa.It is represented by 770 genera & 19,500 taxa worldwide (FAO 2016;LPWG 2017).In India, the family Fabaceae is represented by 174 genera, 1110 species & 256 intraspecific taxa (Sanjappa 2020).Legumes are very important source of proteins in developing countries.In tropical and temperate region wild beans used in the manufacture of resins, tannins, oils, varnishes, paints, dyes, and medicines (LPWG 2017).Other than socioeconomic importance legumes are equally beneficial for ecosystems and recycling via nitrogen uptake, enhance soil porosity, recycling of nutrients, decreasing soil pH, reduction of soil compaction and in rotation with cereals they offer a source of slow-fixation of nitrogen to sustainable cropping (USDA 1998; Popelka et al. 2004).In brief, it is economically important family for development of the region therefore present study focuses on preparation of checklist of legumes from Satmala hill range for future advancement.

Study Area
Satmala is well known hill range in Nasik district, Maharashtra, India.Due to low rainfall & hot climatic condition, the hill range harbour seasonal vegetation.The co-ordinates of hill range is 20.3902 0 N & 73.9086

Data collection
Preliminary checklist of taxa belonging to the family Fabaceae from Nashik district was prepared from all the available floras & checklists (Cherian & Pataskar 1969;Lakshminarasimhan & Sharma 1991;Singh & Karthikeyan 2001;Yadav & Dhanke 2010;Pawar & Pokle 2011;Auti et al. 2021).Studies on herbarium specimens was carried out by visiting some important herbaria such as BSI, CAL, DD, and SUK, which is followed by extensive & intensive field visits from June 2020 to January 2022.All important microhabitats were covered by conducting more than 45 field tours and data.on habit, life form, endemism, ethno botany, microhabitat, distribution, and flowering phenology was recorded.Three herbarium specimens were prepared for every collected taxa following standard herbarium methodology (Jain & Rao 1976).Identification of specimens was carried out using local & regional floras as well as all available taxonomic literature (Hooker 1876;Lakshminarasimhan & Sharma 1991;Naik 1998;Singh & Karthikeyan 2001;Yadav & Dhanke 2010).Some doubtful specimens identified by direct comparison with identified specimens deposited in BSI and CAL.Also digital images such as Kew herbarium catalogue (accessed from June 2020 to January 2022), JSTOR Global plants (accessed from June 2019 to February 2022) were consulted online.The names of species checked using POWO (Plants of the world online accessed from July 2020 to March 2022).All species were classified according to latest phylogenetic classification of leguminosae (LPWG 2017) and listed in Table 1.Study area map and pie diagram is provided for sub-family wise distribution of species.Colour photo plates of a few important taxa are given for easy identification (Images 1-3).

Checklist
A total of 69 species, four varieties, and one subspecies of family Fabaceae have been reported from Satmala hill range of Nashik district.All the species classified into three subfamilies of Fabaceae, viz., Cercidoideae, Caesalpinioideae, and Faboideae/ Papilionoideae.Among these subfamilies, Faboideae or Papilionoideae is the largest subfamily with 59 taxa under 27 genera followed by subfamily Caesalpinioideae with 13 species and nine genera, subfamily cercidoideae with two species and two genera (Figure 2).Crotalaria L. is the largest genus with eight taxa, followed by Alysicarpus Desv.with seven taxa, Indigofera L. & Vigna J TT Savi with five taxa each.Fabaceae of Satmala hill range consists of 26 herbs, 21 shrubs, 14 trees, and 12 climbers.During field visits it is observed that Satmala hill range is dominated by species of Fabaceae family after family Poaceae.

Endemism
Few taxa are endemic to Peninsular India, viz., Alysicarpus bupleurifolius var.hybridus Burm.f.ex DC. found to be growing near edges of seasonal streams.Alysicarpus pubescens Law and Cajanus sericeus (Benth.ex Baker) Maesen were collected from soil rich areas on uppermost plateau.Clitoria annua J. Graham found to be growing inside bushes.It is observed that population of Vigna khandalensis (Santapau) Sundararagh.& Wadhwa is very small and restricted to uppermost plateau but Vigna indica T.M.Dixit, K.V.Bhat & S.R.Yadav is a dominant species found inside grasslands.Indigofera glandulosa var.sykesii Griff.ex Baker found to be growing on edges/ cliffs of plateaus.

Ethno Medicine & Economics
Few wild legumes from study area used by local J TT

CONCLUSION
The family Fabaceae Lindl. is the second largest family after Poaceae due to its high adaptability on various microhabitats.Many species of Fabaceae are good source of ethno medicine, timber, and wild edible.Some herbaceous members belonging to the genus, Chamaecrista Moench, Alysicarpus Desv, Crotalaria L., Desmodium Desv, Indigofera L., Senna Mill., are dominant inside grasslands while some such as Piliostigma Hochst, Tamarindus Tourn.ex.L., Cassia L., Prosopis L., Vachellia Wight & Arn., Butea Roxb.ex According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 27 species were 'Least Concern' and one species is 'Near Threatened'.It is observed that major threats to these species are over grazing & human interference.So there is urgent need to conserve these special habitats for sustainable utilization of legumes from study area.
Figure 1.Study area: A-Position of Maharashtra in India | B-Position of Nashik in Maharashtra | C-Position of Chandwad in Nashik | D-Position of collection localities in Nashik district.