Flora of Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Pakistan
's native flora reflects its varied climatic zones, which range from arid and semi-arid to temperate and tropical. For further details of habitats, see Ecoregions of Pakistan, Forestry in Pakistan
and Wildlife of Pakistan
.
Pakistan has conifer forests in most of the northern and north-western highlands. These occur from 1,000 to 4,000 m altitudes. Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand
, Mansehra
and Abbottabad
districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) are the main areas covered with coniferous forests. Silver fir (Abies alba) and spruce (Picea smithiana) occupy the highest altitudes, deodar (Cedrus deodara) and blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), the intermediate heights, and chir pine (Pinus roxburghii), occupy the lower areas.
Western highlands, plains and deserts
In north of Balochistan
, conifer forests of juniper (Juniperous macropoda) are found, such as in Quetta
and Ziarat
. Near Sulaiman Mountains, chilghoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) forests are also present. In the xeric regions of Balochistan (such as in Kharan desert
), date palm
s and ephedra
are common flora varieties.
Eastern plains and deserts
In most of Punjab and Sindh, the Indus plains have many fluvial
landforms that support various natural biomes including tropical and subtropical dry
and moist
broadleaf forestry as well as tropical
and xeric
shrublands (deserts of Thal
in Punjab, Tharparkar
in Sindh and Cholistan
in both). The tropical forests support mulberry (Morus alba), sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo
), babul or kikar (Acacia nilotica
) and species of Eucalyptus
and Populus euphratica which provide timber. The subtropical dry forests support dominant tree species of phulai (Acacia modesta
), kau (Olea cuspidata) and hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa
). The xeric shrublands are home to vann (Salvadora oleoides), khejri (Prosopis cineraria
) and kair (Capparis aphylla) which provide firewood. The riparain woodlands
grow in narrow belts along the banks of River Indus and its tributaries. Main tree varieties are of sheesham and babul and main shrub varieties are reed bed
s and tamarisk (Tamarax dioica) bushes.
Wetlands and coastal regions
In the south of Sindh are Indus River Delta
in west and Great Rann of Kutch in east. The largest saltwater
wetland in Pakistan is the Indus River Delta. Unlike many other river deltas, it consists of clay
soil and is very swampy. The Great Rann of Kutch below the Thar Desert
is not as swampy and exhibits shrubland vegetation of rather dry thorny shrubs as well as marsh grasses of Apluda
and Cenchrus. Other saltwater wetlands are located on the coast of Balochistan
such as at Sonmiani
and Jiwani
. These and Indus River Delta support mangrove
forestry, mainly of species Avicennia marina
.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's native flora reflects its varied climatic zones, which range from arid and semi-arid to temperate and tropical. For further details of habitats, see Ecoregions of Pakistan, Forestry in Pakistan
Forestry in Pakistan
The forestry sector of Pakistan is a main source of lumber, paper, fuelwood, latex, medicine as well as food and provide ecotourism and wildlife conservation purposes. Less than 4% of land in Pakistan is covered with forests.-Statistics:-Types:...
and Wildlife of Pakistan
Wildlife of Pakistan
Wildlife of Pakistan: flora and fauna and their natural habitats.-Northern highlands and plains:The northern highlands include lower elevation areas of Potohar and Azad Kashmir regions and higher elevation areas embracing the foothills of Himalayan, Karakorum and Hindukush mountain ranges...
.
Distribution
Northern highlands and valleysPakistan has conifer forests in most of the northern and north-western highlands. These occur from 1,000 to 4,000 m altitudes. Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand
Malakand District
Malakand District is a district of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.The District was formed in 1970 as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area, It had previously been a Tribal Area known as the Malakand Protected Area, part of the Malakand Agency...
, Mansehra
Mansehra
Mansehra city is located at in Mansehra District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is very near to Abbottabad city. It is a major stop for tourists on the Karakoram Highway which leads to China...
and Abbottabad
Abbottabad
Abbottabad is a city located in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, northeast of the capital Islamabad and east of Peshawar at an altitude of and is the capital of the Abbottabad District...
districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) are the main areas covered with coniferous forests. Silver fir (Abies alba) and spruce (Picea smithiana) occupy the highest altitudes, deodar (Cedrus deodara) and blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), the intermediate heights, and chir pine (Pinus roxburghii), occupy the lower areas.
Western highlands, plains and deserts
In north of Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
, conifer forests of juniper (Juniperous macropoda) are found, such as in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
and Ziarat
Ziarat
Ziarat is the capital of Ziarat District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is located at 30°22'47N 67°43'38E with an altitude of 2543 metres and is a famous holiday resort of Balochistan and nearly every trip from Karachi to Quetta stops at Ziarat...
. Near Sulaiman Mountains, chilghoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) forests are also present. In the xeric regions of Balochistan (such as in Kharan desert
Kharan Desert
The Kharan Desert is a sand desert situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.Kharan desert is Pakistan's second nuclear test site, and the second nuclear test — Codename Chagai-II — was conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in May 30, 1998.The desert is...
), date palm
Date Palm
The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...
s and ephedra
Ephedra
Ephedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica. E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang , has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold...
are common flora varieties.
Eastern plains and deserts
In most of Punjab and Sindh, the Indus plains have many fluvial
Fluvial
Fluvial is used in geography and Earth science to refer to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them...
landforms that support various natural biomes including tropical and subtropical dry
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome, also known as tropical dry forest, is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons...
and moist
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests , also known as tropical moist forests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome....
broadleaf forestry as well as tropical
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are a grassland terrestrial biome located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and tropical latitudes. Grasslands are dominated by grass and other herbaceous plants. Savannas are grasslands with scattered trees...
and xeric
Deserts and xeric shrublands
Deserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture.-Definition and occurrence:...
shrublands (deserts of Thal
Thal Desert
The Thal desert is situated in Punjab, Pakistan. It is vast area mainly between the Jhelum and Sindh rivers near the Pothohar Plateau. Its total length from north to south is 190 miles, and its maximum breadth is while minimum breadth is 20 miles. This region is divided into the districts of...
in Punjab, Tharparkar
Tharparkar
Tharparkar is one of twenty three districts of Sindh province in Pakistan. Its headquarter is Mithi. It is the only fertile desert in the world. The District derives its names from Thar and Parker...
in Sindh and Cholistan
Cholistan Desert
Cholistan Desert sprawls thirty kilometers from Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan and covers an area of 26,300 km². It adjoins the Thar Desert extending over to Sindh and into India....
in both). The tropical forests support mulberry (Morus alba), sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo
Dalbergia sissoo
Dalbergia sissoo, known as Shisham, is an erect deciduous tree, native to the Indian Subcontinent. It is also called sissoo, sisu, sheesham, tahli and sometimes referred to as Indian Rosewood. It is state tree of Punjab state and provincial tree of Punjab province...
), babul or kikar (Acacia nilotica
Acacia nilotica
Acacia nilotica is a species of Acacia native to Africa and the Indian subcontinent...
) and species of Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
and Populus euphratica which provide timber. The subtropical dry forests support dominant tree species of phulai (Acacia modesta
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
), kau (Olea cuspidata) and hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa
Dodonaea viscosa
Dodonaea viscosa is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, that has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and Australasia.-Description:...
). The xeric shrublands are home to vann (Salvadora oleoides), khejri (Prosopis cineraria
Prosopis cineraria
Prosopis cineraria is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to arid portions of Western and South Asia, such as the Arabian and Thar Deserts...
) and kair (Capparis aphylla) which provide firewood. The riparain woodlands
Riparian zone
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by...
grow in narrow belts along the banks of River Indus and its tributaries. Main tree varieties are of sheesham and babul and main shrub varieties are reed bed
Reed bed
Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...
s and tamarisk (Tamarax dioica) bushes.
Wetlands and coastal regions
In the south of Sindh are Indus River Delta
Indus River Delta
The Indus River Delta , forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea in Pakistan. The delta covers an area of about 41,440 km² , and is approximately 210 km across where it meets the sea. The active part of the delta is 6,000 km² in area. The climate is arid, the region only receives...
in west and Great Rann of Kutch in east. The largest saltwater
Seawater
Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% . This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts . The average density of seawater at the ocean surface is 1.025 g/ml...
wetland in Pakistan is the Indus River Delta. Unlike many other river deltas, it consists of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
soil and is very swampy. The Great Rann of Kutch below the Thar Desert
Thar Desert
The Thar Desert |Punjab]] province. The Cholistan Desert adjoins the Thar desert spreading into Pakistani Punjab province.-Location and description:...
is not as swampy and exhibits shrubland vegetation of rather dry thorny shrubs as well as marsh grasses of Apluda
Apluda
Apluda is a genus of grass in the Poaceae family.- External links :*...
and Cenchrus. Other saltwater wetlands are located on the coast of Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
such as at Sonmiani
Sonmiani
Sonmiani is a coastal town in the southeast of Balochistan province in Pakistan, approximately 145 kilometres northwest of Karachi. The coast of Sonmiani is the northernmost point of the Arabian Sea. The town also serves as a Union Council of Hub Tehsil. Sonmiani is noted for its space research...
and Jiwani
Jiwani
Jiwani or Jwani is a town and commercial port that is located along the Gulf of Oman in the Gwadar District of the Balochistan province in Pakistan. It is located near the Pakistani border with Iran...
. These and Indus River Delta support mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forestry, mainly of species Avicennia marina
Avicennia marina
Avicennia marina, commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae...
.
Cultural significance
| Title | Symbol | Picture |
|---|---|---|
| National tree | Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) | |
| National flower | Poet's Jasmine Jasminum officinale Jasminum officinale is a species of jasmine, in the family Oleaceae, famous for its scent.-Garden history:... (Common Jasmine) |
|
| National fruit | Mango Mangifera indica Mangifera indica is a species of mango in the Anacardiaceae family. It is found in the wild in India and cultivated varieties have been introduced to other warm regions of the world... (Mangifera indica) |
 |
See also
- Ecoregions of Pakistan
- Wildlife of PakistanWildlife of PakistanWildlife of Pakistan: flora and fauna and their natural habitats.-Northern highlands and plains:The northern highlands include lower elevation areas of Potohar and Azad Kashmir regions and higher elevation areas embracing the foothills of Himalayan, Karakorum and Hindukush mountain ranges...
- Forestry in PakistanForestry in PakistanThe forestry sector of Pakistan is a main source of lumber, paper, fuelwood, latex, medicine as well as food and provide ecotourism and wildlife conservation purposes. Less than 4% of land in Pakistan is covered with forests.-Statistics:-Types:...
- Fauna of PakistanFauna of PakistanPakistan's native fauna reflect its varied climatic zones.-Distribution:For explanation on habitats, see Habitats of flora and fauna and Forestry in Pakistan.Northern highlands and plains...
- Trees of PakistanTrees of PakistanIn Pakistan, more than 430 tree species are distributed over 82 families and 226 genera. Out of these 22 species from 5 families and 11 genera belong to softwood trees of gymnosperms. For all plant families found in Pakistan, see Flora of Pakistan.-Examples:...
- Wildflowers of PakistanWildflowers of Pakistan*Dandelion*Lantana*Convolvulus arvensis*Thistle*typha latifolia*Datura stramonium*Calotropis*Justicia adhatoda *Rhododendron ponticum ...
- List of botanical gardens in Pakistan