Valley of Flowers National Park is an Indian national park in the Himalayan area in Uttarakhand, India. Together with Nanda Devi National Park, it forms part of the Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks World Heritage Site. The park stretches over an expanse of 87.50 km².
The Valley of Flowers was declared a national park in 1982. This part of Uttarakhand, in the upper reaches of Garhwal, is inaccessible through much of the year. The area lies on the Zanskar range of the Himalayas with the highest point in the national park being Gauri Parbat at 6,719 m above sea level.
In 1931 the English mountaineer Frank Smythe stumbled across the Bhyundar Valley, an 8 km long glacier corridor in Chamoli Garhwal. This area, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and carpeted with over 500 species of flowers, soon became a protected site.
There is no settlement in the national park and grazing in the area has been banned. The park is open only in summers between June and October, being covered by heavy snow during the rest of the year.
The park is home to tahr, snow leopard, musk deer, red fox, common langur, bharal, serow, Himalayan black bear and a huge variety of butterflies.
Flowers mostly orchids, poppies, primulas, calendulas, daisies and anemones carpet the ground. Alpine forests of birch and rhododendron cover parts of the park's area.
No. | Name of Flowers | Time of flowering |
1. | Rhododendron arboreum | February-June |
2. | Primula denticuleta | April-July |
3. | Iris kemaonensis | June-July |
4. | Fritillaria roylei | June-July |
5. | Lilium oxypetalum | June-July |
6. | Arisaema costautum | June-July |
7. | Thermopsisa barbata | June-July |
8. | Rosa macrophylla | June-July |
9. | Caltha palustris | June-July |
10. | Fragaria nubicola | May-July |
11. | Saxifraga roylei | July-August |
12. | Anemone obtusiloba | June-August |
13. | Cypripedium himalaicum | June-August |
14. | Rheum australe | July-August |
15. | Phlomis oracteosa | June-August |
16. | Hackelia uncinata | June-August |
17. | Senecio jacquemotiamus | August-September |
18. | Ligularia amplexicaulis | July-August |
19. | Morina longifolia | July-September |
20. | Geum elatum | July-August |
21. | Geranium wallichianum | July-August |
22. | Impatiense sulcata | July-August |
23. | Meconopsis aculeata | July-August |
24. | Delphenium roylei | July-August |
25. | Aconitum hookeri | August-September |
26. | Thalictrum reniforme | July-September |
27. | Potentilla atrosanguinea | July-September |
28. | Sedum ewersii | August-September |
29. | Dactylorhiza hatagirea | June-July |
30. | Bistorta affinis | August-September |
31. | Stachys sericee | August-September |
32. | Nepeta connata | August-September |
33. | Pedicularis hoffmeistri | July-August |
34. | Swertia hookeri | August-September |
35. | Gentiana ornata | August-September |
36. | Gaultheria erichophy | August-September |
37. | Codonopsis affinis | August-September |
38. | Angelica cyelocarpa | July-September |
39. | Leontopodium jacotianum | July-September |
40. | Saussurea fastuosa | July-September |
41. | Campanula latitotia | August-September |
42. | Cyananthus lobotus | August-September |
43. | Sassurea obvallata | August-September |
44. | Cremanthodium ellisii | July-September |
45. | Anaphalis triplineruts | July-September |
46. | Inula grandiflora | August-September |
47. | Aster albescens | July-September |
48. | Selinium tenuifolium | August-September |
49. | Heracleum pinnatum | August-September |
50. | Epilobium latisperma | August-September |
51. | Silene setisperma | August-September |
52. | Arenaria griffithii | August-September |
53. | Corydalis junecea | August-September |
54. | Erigerono multiradiatus | August-September |
55. | Polygonum molle | August-September |
56. | Himalayan Blue Poppy | July-September |
57. | Codonopsis viridis | July-August |
58. | Origanus vulgare | July-August |
59. | Hackelia uncinata | July-August |
60. | Salvia hins/lanata | July-August |
61. | Smilacina purpurea/oleracea | June-July |
62. | Viola biflora | June-August |
63. | Rhodiola heterodonta | July-August |
64. | Epilohium latifolium | July-August |
65. | Cotoneaster integrifolius | July-August |
66. | Dubyaea hispida | August-September |
67. | Saussurea costus | July-August |
68. | Ligularia fiseheri | July-August |
69. | Androsace museoidea | July-August |
70. | Eritrichium conum | July-August |
71. | Lindelofi anchusoides | July-August |
72. | Thymus linearis | June-August |
73. | Rheum webbianum | June-August |
74. | Megacorpaea polyandra | June-August |
75. | Trillidium govanianum | June-August |
76. | Satyrium nepoleanse | June-August |
77. | Podophyllum hexaneum | June-August |
78. | Picrorhiza kurrooa | June-August |
79. | Polygonatum multiflorum | June-August |