1. Introduction

Police Academy, Sardah is a hundred year old, luminous and prestigious police training institute, which was established in 1912 at a place named-Sardah at Charghat police station in Rajshahi district. In 2007 it is again renamed Bangladesh Police Academy (BPA). It is the Alma Mater of police training in Bangladesh, is one of the oldest training institutes in the Indian subcontinent. Rajshahi district is a district in north-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi division. The Rajshahi district is bounded by Naogaon district to the north, Natore district to the east, and Chapai Nawabganj district and the river Padma to the south. The Rajshahi district has a sub-tropical monsoon climate, typical of Bangladesh, which falls within a low rainfall zone of the country. 75 percent rainfall occurs during June-September. The annual rainfall is 1350 mm. Temperature of the area is low in January varies from 9.0C to 14.1C. From February an increasing trend of temperature is found up to April and thereafter temperature start to decline. In April temperature varies from 22.6C to 36.9C. The mean relative humidity is found to be low in March (65%) and high in July-September (88-89%) ^[3].

The plants of Rajshahi exhibit diverse habitats, such as wetland, scrub jungles, fallow lands etc. which support luxuriant formation of angiosperms and play a vital role in the local economy, environment and primary healthcare system. Over the last few decades several attempts have been made on the floristic studies in Bangladesh by ^[8], ^{[9, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]}. The present study will be made an inventory of the angiosperm plant species of Bangladesh Police Academy, Sardah, Rajshahi.

2. Materials and Methods

The work is based on fresh materials collected during ten visits to Bangladesh Police Academy from January 2012 to December 2012 to cover the seasonal variations. A total of 302 species under 243 genera and 84 families were collected and identified. Plant parts with either flowers or fruits collected using traditional herbarium techniques to make voucher specimens for documentation. Field identification of the collected specimens was confirmed comparing with herbarium specimens at Rajshahi University Herbarium (RUH). In some cases, standard literature such as ^{[1, 4, 5, 10, 12]}, and were consulted for identification purpose. The specimens are deposited in the Rajshahi University Herbarium (RUH) for future reference. For the current name and up to date nomenclature ^{[1, 6, 11]}, were also consulted.

3. Results and Discussion

Based on this study, a preliminary list of angiosperm flora of Bangladesh Police Academy, Rajshahi was made that includes 302 angiosperm species under 243 genera and 84 families (Table 1). For each species botanical name, local name, habit, plant population and family were provided. Of 302 species recorded here, herbs are represented by 102 (33.77%), trees by 121 (40.06%), shrubs by 48 (15.89%), and climber by 31 (10.26%) species. (Figure 1).

The collected information is comparable with the result of other studies in Bangladesh. A total of 243 species belonging to 195 genera under 95 families were recorded in Khagrachhari district ^[7]. A total of 245 species belonged to 183 genera and 72 families are documented in Habiganj district ^[2]. A total of 425 species belonging to 321 genera 108 families are recorded in Rajshahi district ^[20]. No published information recorded on the diversity of angiosperm plant species of Bangladesh Police Academy, Rajshahi.

Figure 1. Analysis of data based on habit showed the Angiosperm Flora of Bangladesh Police Academy

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Distribution of angiosperm species in the families shows variation. The family Fabaceae is represented by 35 species, Asteraceae is represented by 33 species and Euphorbiaceae is represented by 10 species. Each of Amaranthaceae, Moraceae and Poaceae is represented by 9 species. A single species in each was recorded by 64 families while two to eight species in each was recorded by 14 families (Table 1).

Table 1. Enumeration of Angiosperm taxa of Bangladesh Police Academy, Rajshahi

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4. Conclusions

The present article focuses on an inventory of angiosperm flora of Rajshahi district. In this preliminary assessment, a total of 302 angiosperm species under 243 genera and 84 families were recorded. Habit analysis shows that herbs, shrubs, climbers and trees are represented by 102, 48, 31 and 121 species, respectively. For each species botanical name, local name, habit, relative occurrence, voucher number and family were provided.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Principal (Mr. Naim Ahmed, BPM Addl. IGP), Bangladesh Police Academy and Project Manager (Mr. Md. Monirul Islam, Addl. SP), Bangladesh Police Academy, Rajshahi for financial support to complete this research work. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Md. Arshed Alam, Deputy Technical Officer, Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, and Bangladesh to carry out the research work.

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