Karnataka is blessed with some of the most magnificent tropical forests of the Indian sub-continent. The state is endowed with varieties of forest vegetation with an enormous diversity of species the floral diversity is so wide and varied that in some districts, all types of forest from wet evergreen to dry thorn forest are encountered within a crow-fly distance of less than 100 km. About 60 of Karnataka’s forests are situated in the Western Ghats, one of the mega biodiversity hotspots of the world. The remaining forests situated in the Eastern Plains - although these have limited coverage - exhibit high degree of plant diversity including varieties of medicinal plants. The total number of flowering plants (angiosperms) so far recorded in Karnataka is about 4,700 species belonging to 1,512 genera under 189 families. Out of these, over 600 species are endemic to southern India and 95 are exclusively endemic to Karnataka.