Flora of Kaiash Sacred Landscape Nepal: An annotated checklist. Volume 1. 2021.327 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

The Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) is a transboundary landscape, which spreads across an area of over 31,000 km2 and includes southwestern part of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, northwestern part of Nepal, and northeastern part of Uttarakhand State in India. The Nepalese part of the KSL (known as KSL Nepal) includes three districts (Baitadi, Bajhang and Darchula) of Sudurpashchim Province and Humla District of Karnali Province. The landscape comprises rich natural resources, and cultural heritage including ethnic diversity. The diverse habitat types in the landscape extending from tropical forests to alpine pastures in the monsoon-dominated slopes and dry alpine meadows and scrubs in the trans-Himalayan valleys support high plant diversity.

The present work is an attempt to document all the known gymnosperm and angiosperm flora of KSL Nepal in the form of a comprehensive
checklist. The entire checklist will form three volumes, of which the present book represents the first. It is primarly based on the study of herbarium specimens, investigation of the relevant floristic literature, online catalogue and databases, and direct field surveys.

The first part of this volume introduces KSL Nepal, its biodiversity and vegetation pattern, trade and conservation status of plant biodiversity, and provides a brief account of the botanical explorations carried out in the landscape.

The second part provides &comprehensive checklist featuring 661 accepted taxa, belonging to 231 genera in 42 families, each with information about nomenclature, vernacular name(s), growth characteristics, habitat, distribution, ethnobotanical uses and threat status.
All gymnosperms recorded from KSL Nepal are included, comprising 15 species belonging to 9 genera in 4 families. Angiosperms covered in this volume represent 627 species, 8 subspecies and 11 varieties belonging to 222 genera in 38 families (Schisandraceae — Buxaceae). The checklist further features 1515 botanical synonyms of the taxa covered in this volume, and lists about 935 vernacular plant names with more than 300 names from the KSL region. It also documents ethnobotanical uses of 133 taxa.