Flora

Uttarakhand houses a rich wealth of flora that mostly comprises of a variety of flowers. The flora of Uttarakhand contains the alpine meadows where flowers of different hues bloom every spring.

The flora of Uttarakhand is chiefly concentrated in the Garhwal region, which is also known as the 'Valley of Flowers'. Analogous to its name, the valley in Garhwal houses a multitude of flowers of different colors.

Moreover, as the statistics says, the flora of Uttarakhand comprises 343 species representing 256 genera belonging to 107 families. An estimate of the species and there genera is as follows:

320 species representing 237 genera are angiosperms,

4 species representing 4 genera are gymnosperms,

7 species representing 5 genera are pteridophytes,

12 species representing 10 genera are bryophtes, etc.

The flora of Uttarakhand also contains meadows known as 'Bugyal'. These pastures are found above 2800 meters from the sea-level; these pastures are used as summer grazing grounds by the local people.

'Bugyals' are pastures covered with green soft grass and wild flowers surrounded by snow-clad peaks. The flora of Uttarakhand in the Bugyals include a variety of medicinal herbs and shrubs; the pasture contains about 50 species of medicinal plants.

Some of the important meadows that form a part of the flora of the Bugyals are:

Meadows	Base Point
Panwali Bugyal Auli and Garson Bugyals Bedini Bugyal Kush Kalyani Dayara Bugyal	Ghuttu (66 kilometers form Tehri). Joshimath (14 kilometers). Dewal. Ghuttu. Bhatwari (13 kilometers).

Uttarakhand houses a rich stock of flora. It largely contributes to the natural resources not only of the state, but of the entire country.