The floristic studies in the Himalaya, dating back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century, have so far revealed over 18,500 taxa, belonging to various groups of plants. The Himalayan region with only 18% of India’s land area, houses 81.4% of the country’s stock of gymnosperms, 47% of angiosperms, 59.5% of lichens, 58.7% of pteridophytes, 43.9% of bryophytes and 53.07% of fungi found in India. These figures are approximate, because much of the Himalaya is yet unexplored. The Western Himalaya, which is comparatively better explored, is known to harbour about 5000 taxa.

Orchidaceae with over 750 genera represents the largest angiosperm family in the Himalaya. One of the 18 monotypic orchid genera of India, 13 are found in the Himalayan region. Apart from these botanical curios, the Himalayan region has a rich diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants. About 40% of the Himalayan flora are endemic to the region. Of the 675 wild edible plant species reported from Indian Himalaya, 39 are endemic and about 93 are near endemic.

The Himalaya is one of the Vavilov’s world centers of origin of cultivated plants. Of 320 species of wild relatives and related taxa occurring in India, approximately 60% occur in the Himalaya, with more species richness in the Western Himalaya and north-eastern region, than in the Eastern Himalaya. Out of 167 species of plants which have originated and diversified in eight sub-centres of India, the Western Himalaya has contributed 125 species.

Of the total 622 endangered plants listed so far in the Red Data Books, 137 occur in the Himalayan region. Of the 137 species, 71 species are from the Eastern Himalaya, 56 species from the Western Himalaya, and ten species are common to both these regions.

Floristically , the Sate of Jammu & Kashmir can be divided into three regions . These are

• Alpine Desert Vegetation of Ladakh

• Temperate Vegetation of Kashmir

• Sub Tropical vegetation of Jammu

Temperate Vegetation of Kashmir

The Kashmir Himalayas comprise two natural regions ;

• The Kashmir Valley  &

• Pir Panjal Mountain Range

The Kashmir Valley

The valley is drained by the river Jhelum and numerous fast moving , snow - fed streams from the surrounding mountains . Many canals , nalahs , lakes , springs , etc., form the distinctive feature of the Valley . The vegetation of this region is disturbed due to extensively cultivation of green crops like paddy and maize . In spite of this one can see extremely rich vegetation in the beds and banks of streams and canals . The Myricaria germacica association in the river beds and Polygonum alpinum association on the banks are conspicuous elements in the flora of this region . The plants of economic importance in this area are Cichorium intybus , Ferula jaeschkeana , Solanum tuberosum and a species of Dioscorea . The Important edible fruit yielding plants of this area are Crataegus oxycantha , Fragaria vesca and species of Rubus and Juglans.

Kashmir Valley abounds in lakes and swampy lagoons with distinctive hydrophytic formations . The Wular ,  Manasbal , Nigeen and Dal Lakes support a diverse aquatic flora.

Pir Panjal Range

 The Pir Panjal forests form a compact and linear strip like are running from South - East to North - West and constitute the southern boundary of the Kashmir Valley. The forests occur between 1950m to 3200m. The forests are quite rich on the northern slopes, but thin out to scrub like type on the southern slopes. These forests are designated as 'the Kashmir Valley Temperate type'. The Pir Panjal forests exhibit altitudinal zonation typical of the Himalayan forests.

The Blue pine zone extents from 1602 mtrs to 2000 mtrs . In this Pinus wallichiana dominated forest type. In the Silver fir zone the shrub component is same as in the blue pine zone upto 2750 mtrs altitude, but higer up Salix denticulata is frequently found. Towards its upper limit the fir , Abies pindrow , is associated  with the birch tree , Betula utilis and some times Pinus Wallichiana.

An alpine scrub form of vegetation exists at altitude above 3350 mtrs. The dominant plants of this landscape are the shrubby elements like Juniperus squamata , Rhododendron hypenanthun etc.

The alpine zone begins at about 3000 mtrs elevation , where trees become scarce . The alpine vegetation of Kashmir , as elsewhere in the northern hemisphere , largely constitute perennial herbs , which on account of severe climatic condition have a brief period of vegetation growth. They are characterized by their dwarf size and brilliant colour of flowers . The shrubby elements are few and represented by species like Cotoneaster microphylla , Juniperus communis , Lonicera quinquelocaralis and Rhododendrons .

In Jammu and Kashmir the figures for endemism are available for alpine flora. endemism in Kashmir Himalaya amounts to 58 % in flowering plants  ( 39 % in dicots and 19 % in monocots ) .

         Extent of Endemism in Kashmir