Flora of the Zanskar

When you hear "Himalayas", you could be forgiven for picturing mountains, snow, and not too much else. You don't generally imagine valley floors carpeted with wild flowers, with butterflies overhead, or scree slopes held together with thistles, geraniums, and other flora we get back in the UK. 

One of the science projects on the Ladakh expedition looked at the Amchi system of Tibetan 'medicine'. It is one of the most ancient living medical systems in the world, and until the early 60s was the only medicine available to Ladakhis. Locals believe Amchis to be representatives of the Medicine Buddha, so they are highly respected in both a social and spiritual sense. Many plants in Ladakh are becoming and have become endangered and rare because of their use in Amchi medicine. 

I was somewhat cynical and wasn't particularly interested in supporting the Amchi research. However, I found the plants fascinating, and enjoyed getting back to sketching and taking photos of the plants and flowers. 

According to the few books we had on the subject, which detailed the locations and elevations of most plants in Ladakh, some of the flowers we saw were at unusually high altitudes. Seeing the impact of global warming in such a unique way was incredible. As well as this, seeing the same plant at base camp going to seed but at a higher altitude only just flowering was also pretty cool to see.

Here are a few examples of the plants we saw and some of my drawings.

A sketch of Meconopsis aculeata, the rare Himalayan Blue Poppy

Meconopsis aculeata, the rare Himalayan Blue Poppy - endangered due to over picking by Amchis

Chrysanthemum pyrethroidas

A sea of Bistort - the flowers changed from pale pink through to deep magenta as they went to seed

A sketch of Bistort

I'm yet to identify most of these - please tell me if you know!

This was seen outside of the Zanskar valley, by the side of a river just before ascending to the Kanji La

Thymus serpyllum - Wild Thyme - we used this a few times whilst cooking at basecamp 

This was everywhere around base camp and the surrounding valleys