Shrubs in tropical forest ecosystems : examples from India
Banerjee, Ajit Kumar
Shrubs are a long neglected life form in the forest ecosystem. The planting of shrubs, separately and along with tree crops, should be encouraged in all afforestation programmes in tropical countries. If used correctly, shrubs can act as barriers to water run-off, increase soil and moisture conservation, provide a continuous supply of biomass for use as fuel and fodder, particularly by the poor, and act as inexpensive live fences. The first part of this paper concentrates on shrubs' presence in nature, their characteristics, their growth features and their usefulness. Propagation methods to multiply shrubs and shrub management are also dealt with in this part. In the second part, 81 shrubs are briefly described with respect to distribution, phenological characteristics, nursery and planting methods and appropriate locality factors.
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