University Of Karachi Researchers Completes Documentation About Flora Of Pakistan

Researchers associated with University of Karachi have successfully completed the detailed compilation of flora found in the country

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2020 ) :Researchers associated with University of Karachi have successfully completed the detailed compilation of flora found in the country.

Professor Dr Muhammad Qaiser, a former vice chancellor of UoK and principal author of the document "Flora of Pakistan," announced here on Monday that the work, completed after a thorough and elaborate research, deals with the plants of a defined geographical area of the country.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the four-day long International Symposium on Plant Life of South Asia, he said it was without any doubt a landmark achievement.

"It was indeed an uphill task," said the senior researcher adding that the basic objective was to provide means of identification of the plants growing in the area.

"Our country has been bestowed upon with unlimited biological wealth and we definitely have a very rich flora," said Dr. Qaiser.

Highlighting the relevance of the research, he said utility of plants are rendered limited if not correctly identified. "Flora provides baseline information that can be utilized for scientific study beneficial for pharmaceutical industry, agriculture environment management, forestry and so-forth," said the senior researcher.

He also appreciated the Center of Plant Conservation and the Department of Botany Karachi University for organizing the event, being attended by scholars from eight different countries, besides Pakistan itself.

Guests present on the occasion were informed that the project of Flora of Pakistan was jointly started under PL-480 program, USDA in 1967 at Department of Botany University of Karachi and Gordon College Rawalpindi.

The two institutions were said to have been awarded the project of writing Flora of Pakistan as both at that time had the best taxonomists in the country.

Glowing tributes were paid to Professor Syed Irtefaq Ali from Karachi and Professor Nasir from Rawalpindi for initiating the task and working on the plants in the country.

Dr. Qaiser mentioned that Gordon College had a rich collection of 55, 000 plant specimens - an effort of Dr Stewart who worked for over 50 years and visited all parts of Pakistan.

It was mentioned that the first fascicle of the Flora of Pakistan came in 1970 and in all 224 volumes were published under the editorship of E. Nasir and Ali while Y. Nasir and Ali and finally Ali and himself.

In context of existent challenges, the senior researcher said Pakistan needs good information about its natural resources.

Flora was said to encompass all available plant collections and also gives an idea of the previous vegetation and climatic conditions along with current taxonomy of plants.

"It is the first step to understand and manage conservation of fast-depleting biodiversity of the area," said the researcherannouncing that the work is available online.