Sacred groves are well-protected areas managed by strong spiritual beliefs by the local communities and often represent the relict climax vegetation the region. The present study was conducted in Dhwaj sacred grove from the Central region of Indian Himalayas, releasing its role in biodiversity conservation through traditional and cultural belief systems. Total 81 species belonging to 67 genera and 50 families of plants were identified; in which 40 species were flowering plants, 23 species were lichens, 7 species bryophytes, 12 species were pteridophytes and only one species was gymnosperm. Rhododendron arboreum and Quercus leuchotricophora is the most dominant tree species in the grove showing highest IVI values. Ethnobotanically, 40 species belonging to 38 genera and 27 families are used by the local communities for the treatment of various ailments. But, due to high anthropogenic pressure, this grove facing several threat of degradation, hence special attention is needed towards its conservation and motivation to promote our traditional knowledge.

Eight families (two liverworts; six mosses) of Bryophytes, with ten representative species viz., Liverworts- Cephaloziellaceae (Cephaloziella kiaeri, Cylindrocolea tagawae), Porellaceae (Porella acutifolia); Mosses- Erpodiaceae (Solmsiella biseriata), Hylocomiaceae (Leptohymenium tenue), Myuriaceae (Myurium perplexum), Pterigynandraceae (Pterigynandrum filiforme), Sematophyllaceae (Sematophyllum humile and Sematophyllum subhumile), and Trachypodaceae (Bryowijkia ambigua) are new distributional records for the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The low regeneration potential is one of the main causes of the depleting population of threatened species. Phlomoides superba an endangered species is facing depletion in its natural habitats due to various causes including habitat destruction, low regeneration and exploitation. The ornamental potential of this species makes it suitable for cultivation in gardens for sake of both ex-situ conservation and beautification as well. Because of this, a suitable mass scale propagation protocol is required to prevent wild exploitation of this species for commercial use and also for its reintroduction in suitable habitats.

Selaginella adunca is a quite distinct and rare species of Selaginella found in Western Himalaya. This species is reported only from few populations occurring in India and Nepal. Since most of its reported habitats are under anthropogenic pressure, therefore for proper conservation of this species it is necessary to mark the suitable habitat for its conservation and reintroduction. The present study was aimed to find out the suitable habitat of this species through ecological niche modelling (ENM) technique using Maxent model. This will also help in relocating the species in other preferred habitat type and its reintroduction as well.

The physiocochemical properties of Jatropha curcas kernel oils were characterized as potential biodiesel, including oil yield per plant, seed oil content, kernel oil content, acid value, iodine value, saponification value and cetane number. Twenty-five accessions of Jatropha curcas were used for oil content measurement sranging from 21.14 to 40.66 %with a mean value of 32.85% and Kernels oil 48.59 to 60.45 % with a mean value of 56.28 %. The seed index ranged significantly from a seed weight of 45.45 to 64.45 g. Oil yields per plant ranged from 0.44 to 2.85 kg with a mean value of 1.70 kg per plant, respectively. To understand the properties of acid value, iodine value, saponification and cetane number, experimental physio-chemical studies were performed. Since these properties are critical for determining the current oil condition. The current study confirms that accession seeds performed higher than international saponification value, iodine value and cetane number standards may be an important source for meeting potential energy requirements.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is a cultivated nutritional cereal, which originated in South Asia and is considered one of the oldest cultivated millets in India. DNA fingerprinting is mandatory for registration of newly developed varieties with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV&FRA). Due to the limited availability of genomic information in foxtail millet, the use of DNA based markers in fingerprinting of crop varieties is also limited. Hence in the present investigation, available RAPD and SSR markers of cereals are used for fingerprinting the foxtail millet varieties. The newly released variety ATL 1 is differentiated from popular variety CO (Te) 7 using SSR and RAPD markers. About 66 maize SSR primers, 16 sorghum SSR primers, and 10 RAPD primers were used in the study. Out of 66 maize SSR markers used for study, one showed polymorphism. The marker umc1704 showed polymorphism between CO (Te) 7 and ATL 1 by the presence of 670 bp allele CO (Te) 7. The RAPD primers OPB4, OPA5, OPA11 and OPB1 also helped for differentiation of the two varieties. The identified makers will help for genetic purity testing of CO (Te) 7 and ATL 1 in the seed chain.

Studies on the phytochemicals of the stem wood of tropical trees are scarce, despite its importance to plant protection and preservation as most researches focused on their leaves and fruits. This research work aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the phytochemicals present in the stem wood of Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis and Anogeissus leiocarpus. Freshly sawn timbers were collected from a local sawmill and then grounded into finely powdered wood samples. The powdered wood samples and its extracts were screened for the presence or absence of phytochemicals using standard methodologies. The qualitative screening revealed the presence of various secondary metabolites such as tannin, saponin, steroids, flavonoid, alkaoids and terpene in all the three species. The result also showed that Tectona grandis had the highest percentage of Alkaloid (7.5%), Tannin (4.95%), and Flavonoid (4.67%) while Anogeissus leiocarpus had the highest percentage of Saponin (3.06%) and Terpene (1.45%). This study established the fact that the three selected species studied have potentials in the industries for medicinal and anti-pathogenic usages.

Successful production of healthy seedlings in a forest nursery can be ensured through seed treatment to enhance germination. This study assessed the effects of pre-sowing treatments on the germination of Jatropha curcas; to provide the best treatment for enhancing seedling production. The experiment was laid in a completely randomized design with four treatments: (i) control (T1), (ii) soaking in; water at room temperature at room temperature for 16 hours (iii) cow-dung slurry for 16 hours (iv) 98% concentrated sulphuric acid for 5 minutes Each treatment received 10 seeds and was replicated 5 times giving a total of 200 seeds sown in sterilized river bank sand. Germinated seeds were counted, converted to percentages and arsine values. The data were further subjected to analysis of variance and significant means were separated using Duncan multiple range test (DMRT) at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that seeds with no pre-sowing treatment had the highest mean germination (66%), DMRT revealed that significant difference (P<0.05) existed between seeds with no pre-sowing treatment and other treatments. The study concluded that viable Jatropha curcas seeds have no germination problem; the seeds could be germinated without pre-sowing treatment.

The climate change and carbon mitigation through forest ecosystems play an important role in the global perspective. Soil is a huge carbon reservoir and its storage capacity varied greatly with forest type and altitude. The mountain ecosystem varies in soil organic carbon stock (SOC) due to variations in soil types, climatic conditions, vegetation patterns and elevational gradients. Soil organic carbon stockswere measured at three depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm) in five different forest elevation (200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 m asl) on Courtallam hills, Southern Western Ghats, India. SOC stocks increased significantly with the increase in altitude (P<0.05) at all the three layers (0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm). A total of SOC stocks ranged from 42.79 mg ha-1at 0–30 cm depth were observed in lower altitude (200 m) and the highest value of 50.25 mg ha-1 at 0–30 cm depth was observed in mid-elevation 600 m, while in other elevational showed 46.45, 48.49 and 45.05 mg ha-1 in 400, 800 and 1000 m respectively. SOC ranged from 17.89 to 22.37 mg ha-1 in soil surface layer (0–10 cm), 14.00 to 16.573 mg ha-1 in middle layer (10–20 cm) and 9.08 to 11.35 mg ha-1 in the bottom layer (20–30 cm). These results would also enhance our ability to assesses the role of these forest types in soil carbon sequestration and for developing and validating the SOC models for tropical forest ecosystems.

Three species of red algae belonging to the class Rhodophyceae viz. Amphiroa fragilissima, Centroceras clavulatum and Gracilaria canaliculata were collected from seven localities in the southeast coast of India. The collected red algae were analysed for elemental composition (Al, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Fb, Zn) using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP - AES) from May 2018 to April 2019 at three months interval. The seasonal variation in the elemental composition of the three red algae species showed that most of the minerals were found to accumulate during the summer season followed by pre-monsoon season. This could perhaps be due to the ambient concentration of these minerals were high during these seasons; thereby facilitating their uptake by seaweeds. The accumulation factor of certain irons by the algae were also discussed in this paper.