PHYTODIVERSITY, ETHNO BOTANICAL STUDIES AND BIOLOGICAL SPECTRUM OF AGRO-ECOSYSTEM AT KOWARDU VALLEY DISTRICT SKARDU GILGLIT-BALTISTAN

Abstract

This study was conducted at Kowardu valley from May to October 2019. This study was inventorying, uses of agro ecosystem phytodiversity, habit categories and life form classification at Kowardu valley. The inventory of the current study was comprised of 102 plant species belonging to 85 and 31 families. The most dominant family were Poaceae comprising of 13 species, followed by Asteraceae and Rossaceae both have 11 species, Brassicaceae with 8 species, Fabaceae and Solanaceae were with 7 species in each, while the Chenopodiaceae, Polygonaceae were with 04 species in each. The largest genera were prunus having 6 species, solanum having 4 species and Brassica, artemisia, populas were with 2 species each. It was also observed that majority of plants were angiosperm dicots having 86 species, belonging to 70 genera and 27 families while the angiosperm monocots were with 15 species belonging with 14 genera and 03 families. One gymnosperm species was found which belonged to the group Gnetophyta (Ephedra gerardiana). The habit categories of collected plants also studied and results show that dominant habit category was Herbs (72 species), Trees (21species), shrubs (7 species) and under shrubs (2 species). The life-form of flora were also studied during the research, which comprised the Hemicryptophytes (35 species), followed by Therophytes (30 species), Phanerophytes (24 species), Chamaephytes (6 species) and cryptophytes (7 species). After collecting the ethonobotanical information , we come to know that 35 species and 32 genera belonging to 22 families were medicinally important plants. The most important plant species used by local peoples are Elaeagnus angustifolia, Hippophae rhamnoides, Artemisia species, Capparis spinosa and Fagopyrum esculentum.