Studies on the traditional uses of plants of Malam Jabba valley, district Swat

This paper is based on the results of a project carried out in the remote Hindukush-Himalayan region of Malam Jabba, in order to study the ethnobotanically valued flora of the area. Malam Jabba valley contains 187 plant species of ethnobotanical importance, belonging to 75 families. The plants were classified as medicinal plants (95 Spp.), agro forestry based plants (57 Spp.), vegetable and pot herb (39 Spp.), ornamental (32 Spp.) honey bee attracting (31 Spp.), agricultural tool making (32 Spp.), plants yielding edible fruits (30 Spp.), thatching and sheltering (27 Spp.) fencing and hedge plants (19 Spp.), poisonous (16 Spp.) and timber yielding plants (14 Spp.). The vegetation of the area is under high biotic pressure as a result of indiscriminate deforestation for different purposes and overgrazing as the locals are primarily dependent on the plant resources of the area. People utilize wood mainly as fuel and cut trees to make more land available for agriculture. Ruthless collection of medicinal plants in the area has threatened the existence of some indispensable and valuable medicinal plants like Paeonia emodi, Podophylum hexandrum, Valeriana Jatamansi and Acorus calamus in the area