Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

'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 The wildlife of Pakistan comprises a diverse flora and fauna in a wide range of habitats from sea level to high elevation areas in the mountains, including 195 mammal, 668 bird species and more than 5000 species of Invertebrates. This diverse comp ...

Distribution

Northern highlands and valleys

Pakistan has conifer forests in most of the northern and north-western highlands. These occur from 1,000 to 4,000 m altitudes.

Swat A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand,

Mansehra Mansehra (Urdu, ) is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. By population, it is the List of largest cities in Pakistan, 71st largest city in the country and the List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, ...

and

Abbottabad Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in the country and 6th largest in the province by population, and serves as the headquarter of its namesake tehsil and district ...

districts of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

(formerly North-West Frontier Province) are the main areas covered with coniferous forests. Pindrow fir (''

Abies pindrow ''Abies pindrow'', the pindrow fir, West Himalayan fir, or silver fir, is a fir native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeast Afghanistan east through northern Pakistan and India to central Nepal. Description It is a ...

'') and Morinda spruce ('' Picea smithiana'') occupy the highest altitudes, deodar (''

Cedrus deodara ''Cedrus deodara'', the deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar, is a species of cedar native to the Himalayas. Description It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter. It has a conic ...

'') and blue pine ('' Pinus wallichiana''), the intermediate heights, and chir pine (''

Pinus roxburghii ''Pinus roxburghii'', commonly known as chir pine or longleaf Indian pine, is a species of pine tree Native plant, native to the Himalayas. It was named after William Roxburgh. Description ''Pinus roxburghii'' is a large tree reaching with a ...

''), occupy the lower areas.

Eastern plains and deserts

In most of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

, the Indus plains have many

fluvial A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

landforms that support various natural biomes including tropical and subtropical dry and moist broadleaf forestry as well as

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and

xeric Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (Ancient Greek 'dry') shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this habita ...

shrublands (deserts of Thal in Punjab,

Tharparkar Tharparkar (Dhatki language, Dhatki/; , ), also known as Thar, is a district in Sindh province in Pakistan, headquartered at Mithi. Before Indian independence it was known as the Thar and Parkar (1901⁠–⁠1947) or Eastern Sindh Frontier Distr ...

in Sindh) and kair ('' Capparis aphylla'') which provide firewood. The 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 A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s and tamarisk ('' Tamarax dioica'') bushes.

Wetlands and coastal regions

In the south of Sindh are

Indus River Delta The Indus River Delta forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea, mostly in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India. The delta covers an area of about , and is approximately across ...

in west and

Great Rann of Kutch The Great Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. It is about 7500 km2 (2900 sq miles) in area and is reputed to be one of the largest salt deserts in the world. This area has been ...

in east. The largest saltwater wetland in Pakistan is the Indus River Delta. Unlike many other river deltas, it consists of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

soil and is very swampy. The Great Rann of Kutch below the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert (), also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-large ...

is not as swampy and exhibits shrubland vegetation of rather dry thorny shrubs as well as marsh grasses of '' Apluda'' and ''

Cenchrus ''Cenchrus'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Its species are native to many countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and various oceanic islands. Comm ...

''. Other saltwater wetlands are located on the coast of Balochistan such as at Sonmiani and Jiwani. These and Indus River Delta support

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

forestry, mainly of species '' Avicennia marina''.

External links

Missouri Botanical Garden - Inventory of the Plants of Pakistanefloras.org - Flora of PakistanLahore Gardening Blog - Encyclopaedia of flowersPakistan Plant Database (PPD)PARC Databases
by '' Pakistan Agricultural Research Council'' {{Geography of Pakistan

Distribution

Northern highlands and valleys

Eastern plains and deserts

Wetlands and coastal regions

See also

External links