The Study Of Compositae Plant In The Karakorum Mountains Of China

The Karakorum mountains are situated between the north of West Kunlun mountains and the northwest of Himalayan mountains, in northwest and southeast directions, they are boundary mountains between China and Kashmir, the average altitude is about 5000m. Karakorum mountains in China contains the south of high moutains of four counties in Xingjiang, they are Tashkorgan, Yecheng, Pishan and Hetian repectively, and the northwest of Ritu county in the Ali Region of Tibet. In the paper, we systematically studied taxonomy of Compositae plants, on its basis species diversity was analysed which including the trait of genera and species, life form and flora constitution character and so on. At the end the resource was apprasied and classfied. The research indicated that:About 25 genera,91 species and 4 variaties of Compositae plant were recorded to occur in the Karakorum Mountains of China, repectively accounting for 10.7% of genera and 4.2% of species in Compositae in China. Among them, there are 7 new species on Karakorum Mountains of China and lnew species in Xizang.On the level of species, monotypic genera of Compositae in this area is in the ascendant, there are 51 species with an accounting for 56.0% of total species. On the level of genera, the percentage of genera with single species and few species is the largest with an accounting for 84.0% of total genus number.The endemic phenomenon was not obvious,2 species are endemic to this area and Pamirs of China,2 species are endemic to Qinghai-Xizang Plateau of China,2 species are endemic to Kunlun Mountains,1 species is endemic to Xingjiang,6 species only distribute in this area and Pamirs of China,25 species only distribute in Xinjiang of China and 1 species only distribute in Xizang of China,19 species only distribute in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Himalayan, Kunlun mountains and Pamirs of China. The 79.1% of species of Compositae in this area are Hemicryptophyte, and therefore they are the dominating components in the plant life form spectrum in this area.The composition of flora of Compositae was very complex in this area. The genera of Compositae were distributed to 8 areal-types and 4 variable. The temperate quality was obvious. The temperate quality was obvious, there are 18 generas and 76 species with an accounting for 72.0% in total genera and 83.5% in total species. The relations of flora in Karakorum mountains in China are closer with that in the Pamirs of China, their similarity coefficients of genera and species are 69.4% and 46.5% respectively, but weaker with that in Eastern Himalaya, their similarity coefficients of genera are 16.1%.Compositae plant resources were rich in the area, many species had important value in medicine,viewing and admiring feeding. The article provided basic science information for lucubrating how to protect biology diversity and utilize plant resource in the Karakorum mountains of China.