Endemic flowering plants of northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India: a checklist

A checklist of endemic flowering plant species of the northern Western Ghats (Sahyadri Ranges) of India is provided along with their IUCN threatened category. There are 159 flowering plant taxa belonging to 81 genera and 31 families found to be strictly endemic to the Sahyadri Ranges. The genus Ceropegia has the largest number (17) of endemic species. Five monotypic genera are restricted to the Sahyadri Ranges. Most of these endemic taxa are restricted to small biogeographical areas and are rare in occurrence. Field assessment has shown that 34 endemic taxa fall into IUCN category Critically Endangered, 18 into Endangered and 20 into Vulnerable. A large number of endemic taxa (34) are known only by their type collection, which could not be recollected even after repeated field explorations undertaken by several workers in their habitat of occurrence in last two decades. Hence, they are put in the category 'Data Deficient'