View source for Flora of Pakistan

{{short description|Native flora}}
{{More footnotes|date=May 2020}}
{{Wildlife of Pakistan}}
[[File:Tree in Sant Nenuram ashram.jpg|thumb|Neem tree at [[Sant Nenuram Ashram]]]]

'''[[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]].

==Distribution==

===Northern highlands and valleys===

Pakistan has [[conifer|conifer forests]] in most of the northern and north-western highlands. These occur from 1,000 to 4,000 m altitudes. [[Swat, Pakistan|Swat]], [[Upper Dir]], [[Lower Dir]], [[Malakand District|Malakand]], [[Mansehra]] and [[Abbottabad]] districts of [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] (formerly North-West Frontier Province) are the main areas covered with coniferous forests. Pindrow fir (''[[Abies pindrow]]'') and Morinda 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.

===Eastern plains and deserts===

In most of [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]] and [[Sindh, Pakistan|Sindh]], the Indus plains have many [[fluvial]] landforms that support various natural biomes including tropical and subtropical [[Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests|dry]] and [[Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests|moist]] broadleaf forestry as well as [[Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands|tropical]] and [[Deserts and xeric shrublands|xeric]] shrublands (deserts of [[Thal Desert|Thal]] in Punjab, [[Tharparkar]] in Sindh) and kair (''[[Capparis aphylla]]'') which provide firewood. The [[Riparian zone|riparian 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 (''[[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 [[Seawater|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]]''.

==See also==
*[[Ecoregions of Pakistan]]
*[[Wildlife of Pakistan]]
*[[Forestry in Pakistan]]
*[[Fauna of Pakistan]]
*[[Trees of Pakistan]]
*[[Wildflowers of Pakistan]]
*[[List of botanical gardens in Pakistan]]

==External links==
{{commons}}
*[http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/pakistan/volumes.shtml Missouri Botanical Garden - Inventory of the Plants of Pakistan]
*[http://www.efloras.org/browse.aspx?flora_id=5 efloras.org - Flora of Pakistan]
*[http://www.lahoregardening.com Lahore Gardening Blog - Encyclopaedia of flowers]
*[http://legacy.tropicos.org/Project/Pakistan Pakistan Plant Database (PPD)]
*[http://www.parc.gov.pk/index.php/en/parc-databases PARC Databases] by ''[[Pakistan Agricultural Research Council]]''


{{Pakistan topics|geography}}
{{Asia in topic|Flora of}}
{{Geography of Pakistan}}

[[Category:Flora of Pakistan| ]]