The paper deals with the floral diversity and species richness in the Valley of Flowers National Park, located in Chamoli district of Western Himalaya.Extensive systematic survey was conducted covering various eco-climatic zones, landscape units and seasons during 1993-1997. A total of 520 species of vascular plant, distributed over 72 families and 248 genera, were found within the National Park. Fifty nine species were recorded for the first time from the Valley of Flowers, of which 4 species are new records for the Uttar Pradesh Himalaya.Asteraceae was the largest family followed by Rosaceae and Ranunculaceae in the Park area. The diversity and richness of plant species decrease with the increase in altitude from sub-alpine to higher alpine zone. The results of floral inventory and systematic study of floral diversity have been discussed.

A survey was conducted to explore the resource diversity and their uses by the local communities situated in the fringes of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand. Consumption pattern and impact on the forest resources were also taken into consideration. For this study randomly 12 villages were selected and from each village, 20 people were interviewed randomly. Only one person was interviewed from a household. A total 240 respondents were interviewed. Study revealed that 316 species belonging to 79 families and 212 genera are utilized by the local people for various purposes. Species are used as fodder (145), medicinal (126), fuelwood (89), edible (27), construction (21), fibre (5), oil seeds (4) and other miscellaneous (61) uses by the local communities. Some plant species has multiple uses

The present paper deals with the detailed structural features of pappus of 54 species of Compositae, with the help of both light microscope and scanning electron microscope. Among the studied species, some pappus are scaly type, some are bristilate type and some pappus are awn like. The role of pappus structure is briefly discussed.