Central European Journal of Botany

3-21

Authors: Fazal Hadi, Muhammad Ibrar a, Ömer Kiliç

Kalash valley is famous all over the world for its inhabitants having indigenous culture, religion, language and considered to be the descendants of Alexander the Great living in this rigged mountainous series of Hindukush range. Frequent field visits were carried out during 2013−2016 years for the collection of plant samples and documentation of related data. Then the collected plants samples were properly pressed and identified with the help of different volumes of Flora of Pakistan and other available literature. The study showed 389 species belong to 237 genera and 88 families including 62 dicots, 11 monocots, 7 pteridophytes, 4 bryophytes, 3 gymnosperms and 1 fungi family. Species distribution indicated 307 dicots, 55 monocots, 12 pteridophytes, 10 gymnosperms, 4 bryophytes and 1 fungi species. Asteraceae was detected dominant (49 taxa) family followed by Poaceae (36 spp.), Brassicaceae (25 taxa), Lamiaceae (22 spp.), Rosaceae (22 spp.), Fabaceae (16 spp.) and Apiaceae (13 spp.). The remaining families had 12 or less species. The life form classes indicated 205 therophytes, 56 geophytes and 46 hemicryptophytes species while nanophylls (178 spp.) mesophylls (72 spp.) and leptophylls (53 spp.) were dominant leaf spectra classes. The present study is first ever record of floristic diversity of Kalash valley and includes some new reports. The findings will be helpful in future detail studies on plant resources of the area.