Diversity and distribution of pteridophytes in Hattian Jhellum valley Azad Kashmir Pakistan

Pteridophytes are central group of ecological succession in an ecosystem, which provide suitable microhabitat for their developments and sustainability. The ecological hypersensitivity of pteridophytes either due to microclimatic changes and anthropogenic pressure have made them excellent candidates for ecological indicator. The aim of present study was to investigate diversity and distribution of Pteridophytes in District, Jhellum Valley, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The field surveys were conducted to study the ferns diversity and distribution in different areas of sub-tropical to temperate zone. Sixty three taxa of Pteridophytes belonging to 31 genera and 16 families were collected from different localities of study area. The results showed that Pteridaceae and Thelypteridaceae were the leading families in terms of the number of genera (5 genera each), followed by Dryopteridaceae having 4 genera (13.33%) and 17 species (26.98%); Aspleniaceae, Cystopteridaceae and Dennstaedtiaceae with 2 genera (6.67%) each. The most frequently occurring genera were Dryopteris, Adiantum, Asplenium, Cyrtomium, Cheilanthes, Polystichum, Polypodium, Pteris, Pteridium, Thelypteris. The result of this study provides the first data of pteridophytes in Jhellum valley, which support the key information of fern biodiversity in the study area.