Abstract:

The valley in upper reaches of Yellow River is situated in the east of Qinghai, China, between latitude 35b20c~ 36b 25c N and longitude 100b55c~ 102b50c E. This area belongs to the transitional zone of Qingha-i Tibetan Plateau and Loess Plateau at an altitudinal range of 1 780m to 4 969 m. The total area is c113 480 km2. Its climate is continental or plateau- continental one. There are 1 027 species of wild seed plants which belong to 86 families and 404 genera in the area. They are 44195% of the total species, 95156% of the total families and 79153% of the total genera in Qinghai, respectively. The floristic characteristics in wild seed plants for the area are as follows: ( 1) Species and woody ones are richer. ( 2) Species endemic to China also richer, but those endemic to Qinghai are very poor. ( 3) On the level of genera, all the fifteen distribution types in China, especia-lly all the six tropical ones only occur in the area in Qinghai. ( 4) On the analysis of genera and species, the flora is temperate in nature which is dominated by North Temperate elements especially the typical elements from the warm and cold zone of Eurasia, and also with some elements of thewarm, cold warm and alpine types. ( 5) The area is of a marginal one in distribution for many species or genera and especially for many tropical ones, so the flora of the area is clear in maginal nature. ( 6) In floristic geography, it is a converged and transitional region for the Loess Plateau Flora, Hengduan Mountians Flora, Alpine Qingha-i Tibetan Plateau Flora, as well as Qaidam Alpine Desert Flora, so the flora of the area is also conspiarously a transitional one. Therefore, as a marginal region far from the center of Qingha-i Tibetan Plateau and with a transitional flora more or less keeping the floristic nature of plateau and alpine types, so the valley in upper reaches of Yellow River in Qinghai should be a flora still belonging to the Tangute one, although it is weaker in alpine nature but conspicuously much more related to North China one.

Key words: Qinghai, Upper reaches valley of Yellow River, Flora, Floristic characteristics, Floristic regionalization