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Halophyte Diversity in Pakistan

Wild Resources and Their Ethnobotanical Significance

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Handbook of Halophytes

Abstract

Pakistan covers 1,600 kilometers of distance from the Arabian Sea to mountains of northern temperate regions across deserts, prairies, and plains. The diverse environmental factors have resulted in great halophyte diversity. Four hundred and ten halophytes have been reported from Pakistan as compared to the 2200 reported halophytes worldwide. The reported halophytes are a potential source of medicine and also have potential economic usage. A number of reported halophytes are used as cash crop also (fuel, medicine, forage, ornamentals, chemicals, fodder). Increase in population and global climate changes are predicted to reduce water availability in the century next quarter leading to the increased discern of need to open new directions in providing health security. The non-conventional irrigation system of brackish water and saline soil can provide a sustainable stock of plants from several harvests. The appropriate monitoring and management of cropping systems and saline irrigation system hold promise for providing the productive saline systems to meet the basic requirements of local communities and to ensure the economic benefits in salt-prone regions. Therefore, the national development programs with proper institutional mechanisms are needed to use saline lands for economic growth in Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Moona Nazish, Muhammad Zafar, Mushtaq Ahmad & Shazia Sultana

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  1. Moona Nazish
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  2. Muhammad Zafar
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  3. Mushtaq Ahmad
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  4. Shazia Sultana
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  1. Faculty of Biology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania

    Marius-Nicusor Grigore

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  1. Faculty of Biology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Iasi, Romania

    Marius-Nicusor Grigore

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Nazish, M., Zafar, M., Ahmad, M., Sultana, S. (2020). Halophyte Diversity in Pakistan. In: Grigore, MN. (eds) Handbook of Halophytes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17854-3_101-1

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