HOMEGARDEN PRACTICES AND PLANT SPECIES DIVERSITY IN GETTA DISTRICT, GURAGE ZONE, SOUTHERN REGIONAL STATE OF ETHIOPIA

The study was conducted in Getta district with the objective of assessing home garden practices and plant species diversity. From purposively selected sample Kebeles', random sampling method and selection of key informants related to indigenous knowledge of home garden was used. Sample plots of 10mx10m laid randomly on homgarden and woody plant species (DBH>2cm) was recorded. 5 small plots (2mx2m) one from the center and one from each corner of big plot was laid to record herbaceous species. A total 60 home gardens were established from 4 kebeles. Species diversity was analyzed by Shannon wiener diversity index , , ANOVA and by T-test. A total 83 plant species in 47 families was identified. The common families were fabaceae, rosaceae and poaceae which was consisted of 8, 7 and 5 species respectively. The remaining families were consisted 3 and 2 species. Ensete ventricosum , Solanum tuberosum, Brassica carinata, Cupressus lusitanica were the most frequent species. Study sites were had a species composition of shrub, herb, tree and climber with a species number 28, 27, 25 and 3 respectively. Multipurpose species had highest (13%) use category and followed by fire wood. Medicinal plants and live fence species had similar use category (11.5%). Stimulant species had the least use category (1.5%). Wonzerenagoret had the highest species richness of with 78 and 60 in rainy and dry season respectively, while the least species richness 65 and 47 species were recorded in Ideget kebele in rainy and dry season, respectively. Shannon- wiener diversity index shown Wonzerenagoret had H' of 4.06 and Idget kebele had H' 3.9 shown species diversity and species richness decrease when altitude increase. Ismander kebele had high frequently appeared plant species of Ensete ventricosum, Solanum tuberosum, Brassica carinata, Eucalyptus globulus, Cuprssus lusitanica, Erythrina melanacantha, Lippie adoensis var. koseret, Ocimum lamifolium, Casimiroa edulis, Rubus steudneri and Prunus persica. ANOVA shown Quante, Ismander and wonzerenagoret kebeles had a highly significant difference of plant species density with p