PJB-2025-1511
Floristic and quantitative ethnobotanical exploration of Daral valley, Swat
Maroof Shah, Hassan Sher, Haidar Ali, Bob Allkin and Tiziana A. Cossu
Abstract
Floral diversity is facing direct threat not only due to climate change, but various unsustainable use practices are also responsible for the depletion. Daral valley Swat is not an exception. This area was selected based on its remote location and high altitudinal range i.e. starting from the moist temperate region at 1400 m asl up to the alpine region at 5001 m asl. This research was conducted to assess the floristic composition and quantitative ethnobotanical aspects in the study area. In total of 381 plant species belonging to 81 families were identified. Asteraceae is the largest family with 46 species (12.07%), followed by Rosaceae with 28 species (7.34%), and Lamiaceae with 22 species (5.77%). The dominant habit was recorded as perennial herbs (70%), followed by 29 % annual herbs. Life form was recorded having dominance of Therophytes (141 spp., 37%), followed by Hemicryptophytes (100 spp., 26%), and Geophytes (51 spp., 13%). Semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were used to collect quantitative ethnobotanical use data. Of the total 381 species, 252 (66.14%), were used ethnobotanically. Out of these,195 spp. (77%) were used as traditional medicine by the inhabitants of the local communities, while 57 spp. (23%) were used for socioeconomic purposes. The collected data was evaluated using various indices viz., Relative Frequency Citation (RFC), Ethnobotanical Use Value (UV) and Fidelity Level (FL). Lepidium ruderale L. had the highest RFC i.e. 0.7741, Primula denticulata Sm. had the highest UV i.e. 0.8387, while the highest FL was that of Salvia hains Royle ex Bentham (98.48). The current research has reported new ethnobotanical uses for the first time for 96 plant spp. (38%) from the study area. It is concluded that the population of the study area still have sufficient knowledge of ethno-medicinal uses
To Cite this article:
Shah, M., H. Sher, H. Ali, B. Allkin and T.A. Cossu. 2025. Floristic and quantitative ethnobotanical exploration of Daral valley, Swat. Pak. J. Bot., 57(2): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2025-2(7)
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