Liana vegetation in Kurulu Kele forest in Kegalle

Abstract

Kurulu Kele forest in Kegalle, situated in the wet zone in Sri Lanka, was selected as the study site for this project. The forest is very closer to a major town. Lianas do a major roll in Tropical rain forests. Study of lianas is scarce.

The main objectives of the study were to examine the liana diversity of this lowland wet zone forest and use that information to prepare teaching material that can be used in teaching biology course at the secondary level.

Two sites were identified within the Kurulu kele forest, representing a degraded primary forest and a secondary forest. Ten transects, each 25 m x 2 m in size were demarcated randomly in each site. Twigs of leaves from the liana species were collected and identified to their species level. Reference herbarium of lianas in the Kurulu Kele in Kegalle was also prepared. The data was analyzed to gather information on density, frequency and basal area of individuals and the importance value index of each species.

The results revealed the following: A total of 208 individuals (>10 cm gbh) of lianas were studied. One hundred and nine individuals were in the degraded primary forest and ninty nine individuals in the secondary forest. In the degraded primary forest 13 species, were identified which belonged to 13 genera and 10 families and in the secondary forest 16 species, were identified which belonged to 14 genera and 8 families. In both habitats 20 species were identified. Of them, nine species have a medicinal value. Three species of liana were used as wrapping materials.

The dominant liana species found in the study were Entada zeylanica , Tetracera sarmentosa and Artabotrys zeylanicus. The population size distribution of each transect showed that nearly 1/3 of the total species are represented only by one or two individuals per species.