Medicinal sand dune flora & their ecology

Soil nutrients in natural ecosystems are spatially discrete at the macro, meso and micro aspects but in coastal dunes, the distribution of nutrients are gibbous and create a patchy environment with specific plants. Sand dune plants indicate the changes in climate and help to understand the ecology. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to document the medicinal sand dune flora of eastern coastal areas of India and their association with soil. The Field Data Book was filled of each collected species and Passport Data Form (PDF) was used to gather the soil characters & uses. The results revealed that 25 plants were common in all selected sites along with 12 medicinal and 2 carnivorous plants. The present study highlights the importance of soil characters in the balancing of sand dune ecosystem and conservation of medicinal sand dune flora