Flowering Plants of Nepal

 

Nepal is a Himalayan country, representing one of the world’s richest pockets in plant diversity. The presence of extreme ranges of altitude, climate and soil within a small geographical area has created a striking vertical zonation in natural vegetation and diversity in flora, with 75 vegetation types and 35 forest types. It is estimated that about 7,000 species of flowering plants exist in Nepal. So far, about 6,000 species of flowering plants and over 4,000 species of non-flowering plants have been enumerated from the country. About 5 percent of its flowering plants are endemic.

At a Glance:

Location: 26° 22′ N to 30° 27′ N latitude, 80° 04′ E to 88° 12′ E longitude
Size: area 147,181 sq km, length 885 km (east to west), width non-uniform, average width of 193 km (north to south)
Population: 30 million
Climate: Sub-tropical monsoon regime. Ten bio-climatic zones from Tropical to Nival
Physiography: 80 percent complex mountains
Biomes: Paleoarctic and Indo-Malayan
Forest cover: 37 percent (10 percent crown cover)
Forest type: 35 types
Vegetation type: 75 types
Flowering plants: 5,833 species, 1,496 genera and 213 families
Non-flowering plants: pteridophytes 383 spp., bryophytes 853 spp., algae 687 spp., fungi 1670 spp., lichens 471 spp.
Endemic species: 250 species of flowering plants are endemic
Endangered plants: CITES Appendix species: 13, HMG Protected species: 8
No. of protected areas: 15 (11 National Parks, 3 Conservation Area, 1 Hunting Reserve), that cover 15 percent of land area.

   
         
  
  
   
   
   
  
  
   
   
   


Glance of Nepal