Floristic Diversity and Conservation Assessment of Important Species in Baramati – A Rain-shadow Area Abstract : The paper presents the Diversity, Taxonomic Status & Distribution of different taxa found in Baramati tehsil of Pune district in Maharashtra. In addition, it also provides information on conservation requirement of rare species occurring in area under study. The flora is analyzed statistically to compare the previous floristic studies. The consistent extensive and intensive survey for more than six years enlists total of 938 species, 14 subspecies and 42 varieties of angiosperms (including cultivated species) belonging to 577 genera and 136 families. Out of 108 families are of dicotyledons and 28 families are of monocotyledons are present in the region. Despite being arid vegetation, five members of pteridophytes were found to be growing in the region. Flora includes 6 Low Risk (LR) and 11 endemic species of angiosperms. During this investigation one genera and one species is added to the flora of Maharashtra State, while one new speceis is also described from the region which are under serious threat and requires future conservation measures. Key words: Floristic, distinctiveness, conservation, Baramati. Rani Bhagat, V. B. Shimpale and R. B. Deshmukh* Anantrao Pawar College, Pirangut, Tal-Mulshi, Dist-Pune Pin-413115, Maharashtra, India. *The New College, Kolhapur 416 012, Maharashtra, India. Shardabai Pawar Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Shardanager Baramati, Dist. Pune 413115 Maharashtra, India. E-mail : rb_botany@rediffmail.com Introduction Baramati is constituent part of Pune District of Maharashtra State with 117 villages. It has total geographical area of 1382 sq. km. located in Pune district of Maharashtra State. It lies between 18°3' -18° 12' N latitude and 74° 13'-74° 40' E longitude. The average altitude in the area is about 538 m above mean sea level. River Nira flows West-East as a southern boundary and Karha towards North West-South East. Climate of Baramati is designated as the 'extremely hot' and the vegetation is semiarid type' and is well reflected in vegetation (Champion and Seth, 1968). The soil is mainly of basaltic origin. It has a distinct climate characterized by hot & dry summer (April-June), moist & hot monsoon (July-mid September) and almost dry winter (November- mid February). The maximum temperature may reach up to 40ºC, while minimum goes down to 5ºC. The mean daily temperature is above 22ºC throughout year. The annual rainfall is as low as 37-95 mm and is confined to Southwest monsoon. The area has got one Wildlife Sanctuary known as Mayureshwar Wild life Sanctury has area of about 574.5 hectares. The sanctuary is protected for animal Chikara, Gazella bennettii. The detail floristic inventory of district was not available except for some earlier works (Murumkar and Magdum, 1991; Deokule, 1997; Asad et al., 2002) and specimens deposited in herbaria of different government and non- governmental offices. To prepare detailed inventory on the floristic vegetation in the region the present work was undertaken. All the collected species were identified with the help of regional floras, Cooke, (1958); Lakshminarasimhan et al., (1996); Naik, (1996); Singh et al., (2000, 2001); Almeida & Almeida, (2003). The identified specimens were confirmed after comparing them with authentic sheets deposited at Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Blatter herbarium, Xt. Xavier's college, Mumbai, (BLAT), and Agharkar Herbarium of Mharashtra Association (AHMA), Pune. Dryland species and ecosystems have developed unique strategies to cope up with distinct climatic conditions which are well represented in Baramati region with exclusive wild flora mainly due to rainshadow effect of monsoon. Due to low rainfall the plants mostly belongs to xerophytes. Important species reported in study area includes- Corbichonia decumbens, Sporobolus spicatus- new records for state ( Bhagat et al., 2007), Thalspi arvense, Pavonia zeylanica, Monsonia senegalensis, Cleome chelidonii, C. feline, C. simplicifolia, C. viscose, Capparis decidua, C. divaricata, C. zeylanica, Cadaba indica, Crateva adansonii ssp. odora, Polygala arvensis, P.erioptera, Polycarpaea corymbosa , Alangium salvifolium, Prosopis julifera, Acacia farnesiana, A. torta, A. eburnae, A. latornum, Portulaca oleracea, P. quadrifida, Bergia ammannioides, Hibiscus hirtus, Abelmoschus ficulneus, Abutilon bidentatum, A. indicum, A. pannosum, Hibiscus mutabilis var. mutabilis, Malvastrum coromandelianum, Cardiospermum helicacabum, Cullen corylifolia, A. nilotica, Parkinsonia aculeate, Indigofera trita, I. glandulosa, I. linifolia, Desmodium triflorum, Clerodendron phlomoides, Solanum xanthocarpum, S. eleagnifolium, Lagasca mollis, Phyla nodiflora, Calotropis gigantea, C. procera, Rungia repens, Evolvulus alsinoides, Ipomoea eriocarpa, I. marginata, I. sinensis, I. pes-tigridis, Indonessiella echinoides, Ceropegia bulbosa, Euphorbia dracunculoides, Echinops echinoides, Ficus amplissima, Croton bonplandianum, Euphorbia tiruculli, Iphigenia Asian J. Exp. Sci., Vol. 31, No. 1, 2017; 11-14 Online available on : www.ajesjournal.com, ISSSN : 0971-5444 11