Diversity of Wild Medicinal Flora in Lahaul Valley of Himachal Pradesh

Traditional medicinal system utilizes a huge scale of plants which are largely angiosperms. The high altitude cold deserts of the Indian Himalayas sustain a considerable amount of specialized vegetation, which is widely scattered across different habitats. The cold desert covers land area of 186,200 square km spread over region of the Himalayas. These desert covers about 20% of total land of earth, but the pattern of precipitation and altitude of cold desert specifically supports a unique biome. The lahaul valley is rich in local medicinal herbs of immense potentials and practicnors of Tibbetian or Buddhist community. These biodiversity hot spots are a treasure of medicinally important plants. Overall 31 medicinal plants were recorded from forested and moist shady habitats were evaluated whereas, these populations categorized under threatened categories. Mostly species are not commercially viable but notification from the study ensures ecological rich areas, ex-situ conservation and large scale cultivation strategies of the medicinal plants. Despite toughness of climate in this region, it provides diversity in flora that showed richness valued as medicinal plant.