The flora of the Qhapaq Ñan - Prehispanic Road Network, Carchi – Ecuador

Abstract

The study area corresponds to six remains of the Qhapaq Ñan section, known as the Pre-Hispanic Road Network, located in the Carchi province: Quebrada Honda-Pueblo Viejo, Juan Montalvo - Río Santiaguillo, Julio Andrade - El Camal, Huaca, Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo and La Gruta de la Paz, heights between 1549 - 3000 m., Plant formation dry montane scrub and humid montane scrub. The field work was carried out on six remains of the pre-Hispanic roads where approximately one meter was evaluated on each side of the trails in their entirety; All species and their frequencies were counted regardless of the diameters and heights in each of them, some species were identified in situ, others were collected as herbarium samples for verification in the herbaria of Quito, in order to analyze the data The indices were calculated: Simpson Diversity and Sorensen Similarity. 11,908 individuals were registered, corresponding to 308 species, the Diversity Index in the five trails is interpreted as a low diversity and a trail as a diversity close to medium diversity, the floristic composition of the trails is different, the most frequent species are : Furcraea andina (145 individuals), Croton elegans (474), Brugmansia aurea (145), Euphorbia laurifolia (367) and Cortaderia nitida (294), the most dominant families are: Asteraceae (36 species), Fabaceae (20), Poaceae (18), Solanaceae (16) and Rosaceae (11), the Similarity Index for the six trails oscillate around 50% similarity. Twenty-one endemic species were registered, corresponding to the Least Concern, Near Threatened and Vulnerable categories.