A SURVEY OF ETHNOBOTANICALLY IMPORTANT PLANTS OF DISTRICT GHIZER, GILGIT-BALTISTAN

Abstract

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in District Ghizer, Gilgit Baltistan, during 2013-2014 in order to document the importance and local usage of plants through interviews and questionnaire. Plant species were arranged with their botanical names, family names, vernacular names, parts used, flowering and fruiting periods, and their ethnobotanical uses. Plant species were identified mainly with the help of flora of Pakistan, mounted on herbarium sheets and submitted to Dr. Sultan Ahmad herbarium GCU Lahore. Voucher numbers were allotted to all collected plant species. A total of 49 plants species were collected from the study area which belonged to 26 families. Among these, 46 belong to Angiosperms and 3 belong to Gymnosperms. Among Angiosperms, dicots were 44 and monocots were 2. Family Asteraceae was the dominant family and comprised of 10 species. Plants were categorized according to their usage into single, double and multiple usages. The single usage plants were 28 in number, out of which 24 had medicinal use. Double usage plants were 6 and all were medicinally important while, multiple-usage plants were 15 in number out of which 12 had medicinal use. The collected plants species included 29 herbs, 10 trees and 10 shrubs. It was also observed that cutting of trees for earning and daily usage is common in the study area which is a threat for biodiversity.