Abstract

The purpose of this study was to document the palatable indigenous flora of Santh Saroola Kotli Sattian, Rawalpindi. A total of 169 plant species belonging to 126 genera and 56 families have been identified during 2009-2010. Of them, 106 species are noted as highly palatable with the percentage of 62.72%, followed by moderately palatable plants (37 species; 21.89%), whereas, only small proportion was found as are less palatable species (26 species; 15.3%). Poaceae family contributed good forage grasses (21 species, 12.42%), followed by Asteraceae (19 species; 11.24%), Fabaceae (15 species; 8.87%), Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae (7 species; 4.14% each). With reference to plant parts, leaves were fairly used as fodder/forage purpose (68 species; 41.97%), followed by whole plants (61 species; 37.65%) and aerial parts (33 species; 20.37%). During the month of April, most of the forage was available (110 species; 65.09%), followed by May and March (99 and 96 species, respectively). Maximum species (103 species, 44.98%) were found palatable to all domesticated animals such as goat, sheep, cows and donkey. Goat was found best suited to the climatic conditions which preferred 64 species (60.95%). Sheep was found attached with 34 species (37.87%), whereas, cows alone utilized 24 species (20.12%).

Key words: Kotli Sattian, **Santh Saroola**, palatable, Rawalpindi, animal preference, palatable.