Flowering Plants of Nepal: An Introduction

Language: English
Pages: 448 (151 Color Illustrations)

Foreword
The history of taxonomical studies on flora of Nepal dated back to more than 200 years. The
early taxonomical studies of Nepalese plants were carried out by the Europeans mainly by the British
botanists. As a result of which the first book on flora of Nepal 'Prodromus Florae Nepalensis' was
prepared in 1825 by David Don. Although a few but notably important due to pioneer work of its
kind on Nepalese flowering plants, taxonomical works on Nepalese plants were published from 1802
to 1947. Since 1949 many British, Japanese and Indian expeditions carried out plant explorations in
Nepal and published many important findings. Many important works on Nepalese flowering plants
were published between 1949 and 1982, especially three volumes of 'An Enumeration of flowering
plants of Nepal' in 1978-1982 by Hara et al. Even after this publication many plant collecting
expeditions in Nepal were carried out especially by the Japanese botanists. Researches carried out
in the Central Department of Botany (Tribhuvan University, Nepal), University of Tokyo (Japan)
and University of Edinburgh (U K.) for M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees are noteworthy. Studies on the
flowering plants are still continuing and newly discovered species and new records for flora of Nepal
are being added.
The Government of Nepal established the Department of Plant Resources (then Department
of Medicinal Plants) in 1961 to contribution flora of Nepal by carrying out botanical explorations
of Nepal and establishing a National Herbarium and also published regional floras and fascicles on
Nepalese plants. Publication of a comprehensive flora had been realized in the early nineties to record
all the col