VASCULAR HYDROPHYTIC MEDICINAL PLANTS OF MORIGAON DISTRICT, ASSAM MANJU DEORI Department of Botany, Cotton College, Guwahati, Assam, India ABSTRACT Plants which grow in wet places or in water either partly or wholly submerged are called hydrophytes. The present study is an attempt to highlight the medicinally important vascular hydrophytic plants used by the people of Morigaon District. For the purpose, a survey has been carried out in different regions of Morigaon District during August 2012 to July 2014 along with the discussions with fishermen, fodder collectors and local communities nearby the wetlands. They utilize different hydrophytic plant species for various diseases. This study recorded 34 species of vascular hydrophytic plants of medicinal value. KEYWORDS: Vascular, Hydrophytes, Medicinal plants, Morigaon District INTRODUCTION The Northeastern region is one of the richest biodiversity areas. The Morigaon District of Assam harbours a good number of medicinal plant species. Although it is the second smallest district of Assam but it has 183 numbers of wetlands covering an area of 11658.00 hectors. It is situated between 2605´N to 2605´N latitude and between 920 - 9505´E longitude . The Brahmaputra marks northern boundary and the killing, kolong and Kapili rivers drain the southern part of the district. It experiences medium to high rainfall. The temperature is moderate ranging from 13o C to 350 C. The pH of soil ranges from 4.5 to 6.8. From the time immemorial human being have used the plant species for the treatment of different types of diseases. People of the district use different plants traditionally for curing the ailments in their day to day life. Some of them are vascular hydrophytic . As the modern civilization has now spread to most regions of the world, it has made most of the primitive societies to break away from their culture and tradition has brought about a disintegration of knowledge and practices of plants in their daily life. Before these people completely lose their knowledge of medicinal value of plants forever, there is an urgent need to record such plants through investigation, documentation, systematic study for the benefit of mankind. Therefore an attempt has been made to conserve and document this vanishing knowledge of the medicinal properties of the plants used by the inhabitants of Morigaon district of Assam. Floristic composition works in the North east India have been carried out by some workers, while many others have worked on medicinal uses of plants of North East India , Assam among tribes of Mikir Hills, Bodo, Mishing for different purposes. This paper enumerates medicinal uses of vascular hydrophytic plants by the people of Morigaon District of Assam. METHODS To study the medicinally important vascular hydrophytes, intensive field work has been carried out during August 2012 to july 2014 covering almost all the season of the year. Collected specimens were processed through the conventional techniques (Jain & Rao) and mount on herbaria sheaths for proper identification and preservation. The methodology followed during field work was based mainly on detailed questionnaires. The Questionnaires were prepared to record the BEST: International Journal of Humanities, Arts, Medicine and Sciences (BEST: IJHAMS) ISSN 2348-0521 Vol. 3, Issue 4, Apr 2015, 17-22 © BEST Journals