Explain in brief about the floral diversity of Nepal.Ans Nepal occupies only 0.1 percent of the global surface area. It hosts some of the most spectacular natural areas in the world. The landscape of Nepal is predominantly composed of hills and mountains covering 83 percent of the tota...
Explain in brief about the floral diversity of Nepal.
Ans Nepal occupies only 0.1 percent of the global surface area. It hosts some of the most spectacular natural areas in the world. The landscape of Nepal is predominantly composed of hills and mountains covering 83 percent of the total land area of Nepal. However the great variation in topography with altitudes ranging from 60m to 8,848m over a distance of 190km has resulted in a great diversity of vegetation and a wide range of habitats. The country is endowed with a rich of plants and animals. There are more than 2 percent of the world's flowering plants, about 8 percent of the world's bird species, and about 4 percent of the world's mammal species. In terms of species richness, Nepal is the 11th position in Asia and the 25th position in the world (HMG 2000). Nepal falls within two biogeographically realms the Indo-Malayan and the Palaearctic realms which add to the high biodiversity level. Floral diversity represents the availability of different types of plants. In Nepal, great efforts have been carried on the higher plants i.e. gymnosperms and angiosperms but the research on lower groups i.e., non flowering plants is not much extensive . It is estimated that the British Museum has over 40,000 specimend of Nepalese plants. The University of Tokyo has about 100,000 specimens the national herbarium and plant laboratories of Kathmandu has about 150,000 specimens, and approximately 20,000 specimens are kept in different institutions of Tribhuvan University. However, the work has not yet completed. Therefore, the exact number of species is still unknown. All the infromation mentioned above and onwards is based on the publications and scattered works.
