Vascular plants, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India

Amit Chawla,A K Thukral,Gopichand Gopichand,Brij Lal,Om Parkash,S Rajkumar,R D Singh,Varun Sharma

doi:10.15560/8.3.321

Abstract

In the present study, we provide a checklist of the vascular plants of Kinnaur district situated in the Himachal Pradesh state of India in the western Himalaya. This checklist includes 893 taxa (viz., species, subspecies and varieties) belonging to 881 species of angiosperms and gymnosperms distributed among 102 families and 433 genera, and 30 species of pteridophytes. Information about the growth habit, threat and endemicity status is also provided. Our results show that family Compositae is by far the most species rich family with 122 species, followed by Poaceae (69), Rosaceae (58), Leguminosae (49) and Lamiaceae (38). Among the genera, Artemisia is the most diverse genus with 19 species, followed by Potentilla (14), Saussurea (13), Polygonum (11), Astragalus (10), Lonicera (10) and Nepeta (10). Similar to other regions in the western Himalayan range, family-to-genera ratio was 1:4.25 and the genera-to-species ratio was 1:2.04. Out of 893 taxa, our checklist includes 606 herb species, 63 trees, 108 shrubs, 28 climbers, 67 graminoids and 21 sedges and rushes. Of all the species recorded, 108 (12.2%) are endemic to western Himalaya and 27 (3%) are placed under IUCN threatened categories. The present checklist on the flora of Kinnaur provides an important baseline data for further quantitative studies on the characteristics of plant communities in this region and will help in the identification of priority conservation areas.

Highlights

Western Himalaya has long been recognized as a distinct floristic region in India (Hooker 1904; Mani 1974; Singh and Singh 1987)
The mountain ranges situated on the western side of river Sharda in northwestern India, constitutes the ‘Indian Western Himalaya’ which includes the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
The proportion of endemic taxa is substantial in the entire Himalayan Range and this ecoregion has been designated as a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Western Himalaya has long been recognized as a distinct floristic region in India (Hooker 1904; Mani 1974; Singh and Singh 1987). The mountain ranges situated on the western side of river Sharda (or west of 77° E longitude) in northwestern India, constitutes the ‘Indian Western Himalaya’ which includes the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand This region harbours a rich regional flora due to its diverse topography, wide altitudinal range and location at the intersection of several biogeographical units. The vegetation of eastern Himalaya displays affinities with Chinese and Malayasian elements, and supports luxuriant evergreen broadleaf forests or ‘tropical rainforests’ at lower elevations. Another notable difference between the western and eastern Himalaya is that conifers are less common and are generally mixed with broadleaved species in the eastern Himalaya as compared to the western Himalaya. The vegetation is represented by lower and upper western Himalayan temperate forests, dry temperate coniferous forests, sub-alpine forests and scrubs, alpine pastures, dwarf Juniper scrub, and dry alpine scrub communities (Champion and Seth 1968)

Objectives

Methods

Results