Flora of Chamba District: Himachal Pradesh

Flora of Chamba District’ is the culmination of the project undertaken by Dr. M. Sharma in 1984 that envisaged to explore systematically some selected areas (southern, central and northern districts) of Himachal Pradesh (situated in N-W Himalaya) that would encompass a tract incorporating foothill to subalpine areas and representative of general and common vegetation of the state. The altitude covered ranges from 400-4300 m and includes tropical, subtropical, temperate and subalpine zones. Consequently, ‘Flora of Kullu District’ by Daya Singh Dhaliwal and M. Sharma appeared in 1999, followed in 2004 by ‘Flora of Sirmaur’ authored by Harsimerjit Kaur and M. Sharma. Chamba District, crowning Himachal Pradesh in the north, is the land of myths and legends, irresistible beauty of the valleys, rushing water of rivers, streams and springs, worshippers and pilgrimage and has few rivals for its scenic beauty. D. Brandis apparently was the first botanist who collected plants from Chamba District in 1864. However, floristic surveys in the area are extremely inadequate. Hence the present book is the first serious taxonomic investigation on the vegetation of the district. It is an outcome of systematic field surveys and study of literature and exsiccate in different Indian herbaria for over a decade. A comprehensive floristic account of the existing vegetation has been provided. Phytogeographical, ethnobotanical and conservational aspects have been covered with the help of different analyses and information of various sorts. Dichotomous keys have been provided for the segregation of various taxa. 54 plates have been given along with the relevant species, besides some coloured photographs. The main body deals with 1005 species of seed plants belonging to 545 genera distributed among 133 families. Predominantly, these include angiosperms, whereas gymnosperms are represented by 6 species, 5 genera and 2 families only. The flora will be of immense utility not only to botanists in general but also to environmental biologists, foresters, town planners, landscapists, naturalists, amateurs and other specialists connected with plant sciences in any way.