Ecology and Conservation Status of Threatened Orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo in Manaslu Conservation Area, Central Nepal

Prakash Bhattarai^1*, Bikram Pandey¹, Raj Kumar Gautam², Rita Chhetri³

¹Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
²Makawanpur Multiple Campus, Hetauda, Nepal.
³National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, Lalitpur, Nepal.

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2014.523364                

Abstract

Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo, commonly known as “Panchaunle”, is an important medicinal plant species distributed throughout the Himalaya region. The present work was conducted in order to assess its availability in natural habitats because of its medicinal properties, cultural significance and declining population density. The work focused primarily on its ecological features and conservation status. The density of D. hatagirea was found to be 2.18 individuals·m^-2 with frequency and abundance being 81.81% and 2.67 individuals·m^-2, respectively. We considered grazing, trampling, number of cattle and distance to settlement as anthropogenic factors. While grazing and trampling were shown to have a significant, negative impact on population density, we observed no significant change in the number of the species with respect to number of cattle and distance to settlement. We conclude that the species is threatened and that anthropogenic factors have a significant effect on its habitation in the study area.

Keywords

Anthropogenic, Grazing, Medicinal Plants, Population Density, Threatened

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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