RESEARCH ARTICLE Bryophyte Diversity on Erythrina arborescens in Nainital Vishal Awasthi • Raksha Pande • Neerja Pande Received: 16 September 2012 / Revised: 20 November 2012 / Accepted: 5 December 2012 / Published online: 3 January 2013 Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2012 Abstract The bryophyte diversity associated with the tree bark of Erythrina arborescens Roxb. was studied and compared with other important tree species of Nainital region. In total the E. arborescens trees had an assemblage of 17 moss species belonging to the 8 families, while no liverwort species was observed on the bark of this tree. Comparison of the bryoflora of E. arborescens with other dominant trees of this locality revealed that only a few species are common and most of the bryophyte species viz., Barbula fuscescens Wall., Bryoerythrophyllum gymnostomum (Broth.) P. C. Chen., Bryum caespiticium Hedw., Caduciella mariei (Besch.) Enroth, Didymodon mittenii Gangulee, Ditrichum ambiguum Best, Cylindro- thecium laetum (Griff.) Paris, Cylindrothecium myurum (Hook.) Paris, Tortula spathulata (Harv.) Mitt. and Levie- rella neckeroides (Griff.) O’Shea and Matcham are con- fined to the E. arborescens bark only. Keywords Bryophyte Á Epiphytic Á Erythrina arborescens Á Mosses Introduction Epiphytic bryophytes particularly mosses constitute an important and integral part of forest communities on account of having ecological importance in nitrogen retention and cycling [1], nutrient release [2, 3] and water storage by rainfall interception [4, 5] in forest ecosystem. Ashton [6] provided a detailed account on ecology of bryophyte communities in Eucalyptus tree at Wallaby Creek, Victoria. Species richness and host specificity of bryophytes in rela- tion to a large number of phorophytes have been studied in western countries [7–10]. In India, epiphytic succes- sion has been studied on tree trunk in a mixed oak-cedar forest in Kumaun Himalaya [11]. Tewari and Pant [12] studied bryophyte diversity on four oak species (Quercus leucotrichophora, Q. floribunda, Q. semecarpifolia and Q. lanuginosa) and three gymnosperms (Pinus roxburghii, Cedrus deodara and Cupressus tortulosa) and listed a sum of 90 mosses and 22 liverwort taxa from the bark of these phorophytes in Nainital. Similarly, Pande et al. [13] reported 21 bryophyte taxa from the bark of Aesculus indica in Nainital and Bansal et al. [14] reported several bryophyte species on the bark of Thuja orientalis in Nagaland. Nath et al. [15] studied the diversity of epiphytic moss flora of Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve (Madhya Pradesh). In the region of Nainital, not only the evergreen dominant tree species represent the rich epiphytic bryoflora, but also many deciduous trees reveal a good cover of mosses on their bark [13]. Erythrina arborescens Roxb., a common deciduous tree belonging to the family Fabaceae was selected for the study of the bryoflora on its bark and to observe that how far the bryoflora of this tree differed or resembled with that of other dominant trees of the locality. Material and Methods Five trees of E. arborescens were selected in Nainital and examined for the occurrence of bryophyte diversity up to the approachable height. The mosses were collected toge- ther with the underlying substratum bark and brought to the laboratory for identification. The plants were separated according to their growth form, habit and other V. Awasthi Á R. Pande Á N. Pande (&) Department of Botany, Kumaun University, D.S.B. Campus, Nainital 263002, India e-mail: neerjapande2012@gmail.com 123 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. (July–Sept 2013) 83(3):461–464 DOI 10.1007/s40011-012-0144-8