Floristic biodiversıty and traditional uses of medicinal plants of Haramosh Valley Central Karakoram National Park of Gilgit district, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

The aim of present study was to explore the floristic inventory and record the indiginious knowledge about medicinal plants of the Haramosh valley, Central karakoram national Park.For this purpose, surveys were carried out during March, 2013 to July, 2014. Haramosh valley is located at the northern side of the river Indus, started from junction of three great mountainous ranges i.e. Karakoram, Himalaya, and Hindukush. The detailed information about the flora and the indeginous knowledge was gathered through detail interviews and semi structured questionnares. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to record coordinates of the 41 different localities and their distribution map is designed using ArcGis 10.2 (Fig. 1). The total 111 plant species are reported , out of these 28 species are endengered, rareand endemicflora of this valley as compare to other valleys of Central Karakoram national park. The 83 medicinally important plant species are reported from this valley belonging to 73 genera and 40 families were collected and recoded their ethnobotanical data from the different areas and inhabitants of Haramosh valley. Out of the 28 unique flora of the valley, threeareendemic species Taraxacum qaiseri, Hieracium sherwaliiand Sorbus gilgitanawhile five are rare species Aquilegia nivalis, Chenopodium foliosum, Haplophyllum gilesii, Podophyllum hexandrum and Primula inayatii . The most of the important medicinal plants of the study area are belonging to these families Asteraceae, followed by Papillionacea, Rosaceae, Polygonaceae, Labiateae, and Chenopodiaceae, while other familes have less species.Due to the weak economical conditions, less education, villages territorial conficts and ignore the existing customary laws of the area the natural ecosystem is declining at rapid pace. The overgrazing, deforestation and un-sustainable management of flora causing threat to natural biodiversity and need a comprehensive plan to protect the natural resources.