With about 7000 species of vascular plants, Nepal is a globally important biodiversity hot-spot.
Although Nepal is a small country it boasts a huge diversity of plant species because of its enormous range of habitats. Although most famous for the alpine vegetation of its high mountains, Nepal rises from subtropical lowland forests only 60 m above sea level. The effects of the monsoonal climate vary widely across the country, with lush rhododendron forest on the southern slopes of the Himalayas receiving over 5000 mm of rain annually, while semi desert areas to the north of the main ranges receive barely 250 mm per year.
Aims
- To coordinate activities contributing to the Flora of Nepal, the first comprehensive account of Nepal's vascular plants.
- To undertake taxonomic revisions of Nepalese plants
- To publish volumes of the Flora and make this information and supporting specimen information and images available over the internet.
- To build the capacity of Nepalese institutions and botanists to participate in this work.
- To explore under-collected regions of Nepal to increase our knowledge of the country's plants
Current Activities
- In September 2011 we published Volume 3 of the Flora of Nepal, the first of the Flora's 10 Volumes. This Volume covers 21 families Magnoliaceae to Rosaceae and includes 600 species.
- In September 2011 we visited Sindhupalchok District, to the north of Kathmandu. Although this District is easily accessible from Kathmandu it has been very little visited by botanists and there are few plant records from the area.
Staff
Dr Mark Watson - Editor in Chief
Dr Colin Pendry - Researcher and Editor
Dr Bhaskar Adhikari - Researcher
Partners
Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Department of Plant Resources
Tribhuvan University, Central Department of Botany
Nepal Academy of Science and Technology
National History Museum, London
For information on our work in Nepal, please see the Plants of Nepal website.
