Boreal and arcto-alpine elements in the flora of western Himalaya

Abstract

Hooker (1861) recorded 106 species as arctic in the Himalaya out of a total of 762 arctic phanerogamic species. The hypothesis of Hooker that the arctic flora is Scandinavian as a whole, does not seem to be sound as revealed by studies of Engler (1916), Briquet (1908), Fernald (1925, 1931), Hult?n (1937) and Raup (1941, 1947). The definition of the arctic flora, given by Hooker, made his statistics less useful, then they would have otherwise been, while most modern studies have been confined to one or other of the three main geographical divisions, namely the paleartic (Eur asia), the nearctic (north America) and Greenland. Chopra & Kapoor (1952) analysed the distribution of the alpine flora of Kashmir and found that many plants are present throughout the alpine parts of the northern Hemisphere, while others are found in the colder parts of Europe and Asia. They similarly recorded the Central Asian and other elements in the alpine flora of Kashmir. The present author undertook a comparative study of the Hima layan vegetation with that of the mountain chains towards the Alps and the Pyrenees (1962) and it was noted that a number of plants from the boreal and arctic regions are present in the Western Himalaya. An account of those plants is given in this communi cation.