Phytodiversity assessment in Sangla valley, Northwest Himalaya, India

Abstract

Materials and Methods Study area Sangla valley is located at Latitudes 31°10′01.00′′-31°30′17.16′′ N and Longitudes 78°10′26.52′′-78°52′ 41.75′′ E and altitudes varying from 1800 to 4600 m (Figure 1). The mountains of the valley are composed of carbonaceous slates, quartz schists, phyllite, garnetiferous schists, quartzite and lenticular limestone (Srikantia and Bhargava 1998). The valley is highly glacierized and the winter runoff of the valley is mostly contributed by dry precipitation than wet precipitation, which is on an average <150 mm per annum. The climatic conditions vary from dry temperate to alpine, and vegetation is mainly of temperate, sub-alpine and alpine types. The flora is represented by alpine pastures, dwarf Juniper scrub, subalpine forests/scrubs and temperate forests (Champion and Seth 1968). The socioeconomic livelihood of people (dominated by the tribal community Kinnauri) is largely based on agriculture and animal husbandry, along with seasonal collection of medicinal and other economic plants from natural habitats. Surveys, sampling, data collection Field work was done for two years, i.e., 2011 and 2012 between April to October, the most active period for floristic studies in the high mountains. The species were identified on site and herbarium specimens were brought to the working office of the

A floristic survey across three coniferous forests of Kashmir Himalaya, India – a checklist

“…In the present study, the situation for seven (2.57%) taxa categorized under threatened, i.e., Saussurea costus & Aconitum chasmanthum (CR), Trillium govanianum, Aconitum heterophyllum, Taxus wallichiana, & Atropa acuminata (EN), and Cypripedium cordigerum (VU) were found occasionally in the present study and requires immediate conservational priorities across the landscape. Besides climate change and overgrazing, the species in high demand for traditional medicinal and pharmaceutics has led to their extensive collection and illegal trading, thus pushing them closer to extinction (Devi et al 2014;Nowak et al 2020). The sustainability of such flora is imperative across the landscape.…”

“…Asif et al (2020) Betula forests in northwestern Kashmir Himalaya;Dar & Sundarapandian (2016) forests of western Himalaya, and elsewhereDevi et al (2014) northwestern Himalaya. Variation in species distribution among the forest types/altitudinal zones could be due to micro-climatic heterogeneity resulting from a change in elevation, slope, and other ecological gradients(Körner 2007), besides evolutionary…”

Wild plant resources used as food in Spiti Valley: A cold arid zone of Himachal Pradesh, India

“…Most of the vegetation thrives during the summer season and monsoon from April to September as from October the winter starts. [32,25,[33][34][35][36] .…”