Checklist of the bryophytes of Tamil Nadu, India - Jan-Peter Frahm

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A.E.D. Daniels
mountains including the Nilgiris and the Palnis, where many peaks exceed 2000 m elevation and
the highest, Dodabetta Peak, rises to 2637 m. Similarly, the rainfall ranges from 640 mm along the
eastern region to 3000 mm along the western and southwestern regions of the state as these two
regions receive both the north-east and south-west monsoon rains (Annamalai, 2004).
Tamil Nadu has a forest cover of 21,482 km 2 (Annamalai, 2004). This is mostly confined to the
Western and the Eastern Ghats. As the terrain varies from sea level to over 2600 m., the vegetation
types also vary accordingly, from scrub jungles in the foothills, to hill-top wet evergreen forests
above 2000 m. The forest types seen along the Western Ghats of the state include scrub jungles,
dry deciduous forests, moist deciduous forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist evergreen forests and
hill-top wet evergreen forests with grassy swards. However, grassy swards are often met with in
dry deciduous forests. The forests of the Eastern Ghats are mostly scrub to dry deciduous. Along
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