plants in Nepal

nepal and its plants

Nepal is a narrow, rectangular country at the heart of the Himalaya.  Bounded by the cold, arid Tibetan Plateau to the north, and the hot, humid Indian plains to the south, Nepal is famous for its culture and spectacular mountain scenery. Eight of the world's ten highest peaks are found within its borders, including the highest point on earth, Sagarmatha, 8,848 m (Mount Everest, 29,028 ft). Nepal is also home to an amazing diversity of plants: from stunted alpines battling with the harsh environments of the frozen mountains, to mighty trees of the steamy lowland jungles down at around 60 m, and all within 150 km (see Fact File for country statistics).Botanically Nepal forms a transition zone between the plants of the western Himalaya (including western Asiatic and Mediterranean elements) and the eastern Himalaya (with many Sino-Japanese elements). Adding variety to the mix are Tibetan Plateau (Central Asiatic) plants from the north and humid tropical species of the lowland plains (Terai) from the Gangetic plains of India and further a field into Indochina. Central to this is the Himalayan range itself, a unique series of mountain chains formed by geologically recent mountain building events. These young massifs contribute to the diversity of plants, and have provided barriers to and corridors through which plants migrated during the ice ages.Nepal has a monsoon climate, with the wet season starting in June when heavy rains of the south-west monsoon arrive. The High Himalaya range blocks the northwards passage of the moist airs, increasing rainfall in Nepal and keeping the areas beyond in deep rain shadow. These same mountains also act as a barrier to the cold fronts sweeping across from central Asia, protecting Nepal and northern India and giving them warmer winters. The high mountains, deep river valleys and lowland plains combine with the effects of the summer monsoon and dry winter to form bewildering array of habitats in what is a relatively small country: Nepal is smaller than the UK, and barely larger than the 'boot' of Italy. Existing checklists for Nepal record some 6000 species of flowering plants (about 4 times as many the UK) and about 530 ferns. However, botanical exploration has really only extended beyond the capital Kathmandu since the 1950's, and botanical experts estimate that over 6600 species will be listed for Nepal when the poorly known remote regions are fully explored.