Aquatic Plant Diversity of Lakes in Somwarapete Taluk, Kodagu, Karnataka

The principal objective of the present research is to record data regarding the aquatic plants of Somwarapete taluk of Kodagu district. Three major lakes were selected for the study for a period of one year, i.e., June 2020–July 2021. A total of 43 species were recorded, belonging to 28 families and 41 genera. The most dominant families were found to be Araceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Asteraceae, and Amranthaceae. After initial identification, the plants were classified according to their habitats, life spans, and IUCN status. Jaccard’s index and Sorenson's index were used to learn about the similarity coefficient between the sample sites. We divided plants in accordance with their IUCN status and found them to be endangered, threatened, and under the category of least concern. The work was undertaken because no documented data is available for the aquatic macrophytes of Somwarapete taluk.