Floristic composition and ecological characteristics of plants of chail valley,district Swat,Pakistan

The present study was carried out during 2012-2014 to enumerate the floristic and ecological characteristics of plants of chail valley,district swat. a total of 463 species belonging to 104 families were recorded. leading families were asteraceae (42 spp),poaceae (35 spp),rosaceae and lamiaceae (each with 26 spp),papilionaceae (25 spp),brassicaceae and boraginaceae (each with 16 spp),apiaceae (14 spp),solanaceae (13 species) and ranunculaceae (12 spp). each of the remaining families had less than 12 species. therophytes with 188 species,40.60% were dominant. they were followed by hemicryptophytes (77 species,16.63%). cuscuta europaeal.,c. reflexa roxb. and viscum album l. were the three shoot parasites. the leaf spectra was dominated by mesophylls (147 spp; 31.75%),microphylls (140 spp.; 30.24%) and nanophylls (136 spp.; 29.37%). two species were aphyllous. majority of the species (305 spp.,65.87%) had simple lamina. eight species (1.73%) had spiny leaves. © 2016,pakistan botanical society. all rights reserved.