Abstract

The present contribution relates to the diversity of the medicinal flora of the world famous Almora district of the Central Himalaya in the state of Uttarakhand (India). The paper describes distribution and local/traditional uses of the 188 medicinal flora representing 80 families, in which 35 species were trees, 112 were herbs, 35 were shrubs and 06 were climbers. These identify the plants that need conservation and protection. Various parts, such as: whole plant (55), roots (47), fruits (32), stem (11), leaves (41), barks (23), inflorescence (2), rhizome (6), bulbs (8), latex (3), seeds (32), flowers (14) and oil (5) were used in different ailments.

Key words: Almora, biodiversity, ethno-medicinal plants, traditional knowledge system.