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DECIDUOUS FORESTS OF THE PLATEAU FRINGE
Trees found in these forests are palash also in the form of coppice and
glades of full grown mahua. There trees are not felled, for their flowers,
fruits and seed are used for
producing
liquor, food and oil. Other trees are simal, haldu and harra. Bamboos and some
kinds of tall grasses including sabai grass also grow at places in this area.
MANGROVE VEGETATION OF THE SUNDARBANS
The vegetation in this region has to face a very special type of environment.
The water is salty and the vegetation must adopt itself to the rise and fall of
tides. There is little firm ground for trees to stand. It is all deep slimy mud.
Plants must provide themselves with gadgets to stand erect in such environment.
The root systems of mangrove plants are usually very large to allow them to
stand in deep mud. In many cases as in keya or kewra, the roots branch out from
above the ground and provide stilts to the plant, so that it does not fall
easily. As the tide ebbs out, a tangled mass of roots is visible just above the
water.
Some plants germinate from their seeds while still on the tree. While the
little plant grows up, it develops a long "stab" like root below while
still attached to its mother tree and still in the air. When sufficiently strong it falls down and stabs itself into
the mud, already a growing plant, ready to face the hazards of life. These
plants are called viviparous.
A very common scene in the Sundarbans is a forest of spikes
jutting out of
the muddy ground. They are actually pneumatophores or breathing roots shooting
out of the mud and joined to the root system underground. They consist of fine
tubes through which air reaches the inner, submerged roots. The most common of salt loving trees which is found here is
Sundri. Other
trees are goran, gewa, baen and dhundal. A dwarf variety of palm called nipa
palm grows widely along the edge of the salt water.
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