**3. Flora and plant diversity**

In AJK, vegetation can be divided into four groups:


The Himalaya Kashmir is documented as worldwide epicenter of endemism and plant diversity. Accordance to the report of Pei [1], in Himalayan range,

*Historical Evidence and Documentation of Remedial Flora of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96472*

total number of plant species is about 25,000 and total number of angiosperms in Kashmir Himalaya is about 3,054 [2]. About 80% endemic angiosperms is in Pakistan are confined to Northern and Western mountains [3, 4]. 70–80% of population in this region depends on traditional medicines for health care and in Himalayan ranges; at least 70% of the medicinal plants and animals in the region consists of wild species [5]. A total of 104 medicinal plant species including tree, shrubs and herb species used ethnobotanically by the local people of Muzaffarabad were reported from Machyara National Park Muzaffarabad [6, 7]. Most of People living in mountains regions use plants in different ways such as medicines, fire wood, timber wood, food, fodder etc. [8].
