Vegetation Assessment of Okigwe Limestone Quarry Site at Okpilla in Etsako East Local Government Area, Edo State

The objective of the present study is to assess the impact of limestone quarrying on vegetation and document the flora associated with quarry. Three sites were adopted for this research work which were Site A (4 years quarry site), Site B (1 year and 6months quarry site) and Site C (Surrounding area with no quarry activities). Line transect method was employed and the plant species were identified and quantitative community characteristics were also assessed. The result obtained showed that at site A, B and C there were 49, 36 and 74 plants species, respectively, distributed into 18, 16 and 29 plant families, respectively. The most dominant species rich-families were Fabaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae. Herbs were the most dominant plant habit and there were more native plant species in all the studied sites. As the dominance reduced and evenness increased the diversity increased. The Jaccard similarity index revealed that Sites A and B when compared had the highest value of 0.4167 indicating there were more similar in terms of plant species present. It is evident that quarrying activities in the area are detrimental to the vegetation. This finding would be useful while formulating the management plan for the area.