The history of publication of floristic accounts from Uttar Pradesh, some of the pioneer floristic works of this region include those of General William Munro (1844), who was the first person to publish the Hortus Agrensis or Catalogue of All Plants in the Neighbourhood of Agra district and that was probably the first flora from the state. After him, Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1852, 1867) an Irish botanist who wrote on the plants from the Banda district of Bundelkhand region and subsequently followed by the Anderson (1859) on the flora of Lucknow including cultivated and indigenous plants and Parker (1929) on the Sedges of Uttar Pradesh. These fragmentary works further inspired other Indian taxonomists like B.L. Gupta (1928), who came up with the important work on the flora of Saharanpur division including other areas and Kanjilal (1933 & 1966) made an attempt to revise the entire province in “Forest flora of Pilibhit, Oudh, Gorakhpur and Bundelkhand” and “A Forest Flora for the Plains of Uttar Pradesh”. Later, Kanjilal & Gupta (1969) published Forest flora of the Chakrata, Dehra Dun, and Saharanpur Forest Divisions, Uttar Pradesh. Now these works need further revision as the nomenclature and circumscription of many species have changed significantly. Raizada (1935, 1936, 1950, 1954, and 1958) published additions to the flora of Duthie’s, laying more emphasis on grasses. Further, Raizada et al. (1957), Raizada & Jain (1964, 1966) came out with an account of grasses from undivided Uttar Pradesh. Rau (1969) also prepared a checklist of the flora of Upper Gangetic Plain and other neighbouring areas. These works enabled Raizada (1976) to publish a supplement to the “Duthie's flora of Upper Gangetic Plain and of the adjacent Siwalik and Sub–Himalayan Tracts”. Later, Nair & Nair (1977) published an account of floristic studies that was carried out in Upper Gangetic Plain. Furter, in 1999, Uniyal et al. discussed the floristic diversity of Uttar Pradesh. Along with these works few generic accounts like Alysicarpus by Verma et al. (1988); Crotalaria by Verma et al. (1992); Indigofera by Verma & Shukla (1992) were also published. Apart from these, the preparation of checklist at state level was also undertaken. Uniyal et al. (1994) prepared the checklist of grasses of Uttar Pradesh; further Uniyal et al. (1997, 1999) published the checklists of Cyperaceae and other monocotyledonous plants. Khanna et al. (1999) published the checklist of dicotyledonous plants of undivided Uttar Pradesh. But all these works are not enough to serve the purpose because at present Uttarakhand, a state that was carved out in 2001 from Uttar Pradesh is an independent state. Change in the political boundaries of the current State makes it difficult to decide the actual boundary of the species. In this context to avoid the problem or confusion Singh & Srivastava (2004) again published a checklist of Cyperaceae comprising of 128 species and 17 genera in the present political boundaries of Uttar Pradesh. Khanna (2001) prepared a checklist of endemic plants of Uttar Pradesh later, in 2009, he made an enumeration list of the invasive alien angiosperms of Uttar Pradesh. A checklist of tree species of the Himalayan Terai region of Uttar Pradesh has been published by Bajpai et al. (2015). A checklist on angiospermic plants of Uttar Pradesh has also been published by Khanna (2017) recently. Apart from these works, separate taxonomic accounts of grasses published by Shukla & Sinha (2004) and separate families like Cyperaceae by Verma et al. (1989); Asteraceae by Narain & Kanchanlata (2004); Fabaceae by Narain & Singh (2008) were also published. Moreover, many fragmentary works have been done from various parts of the state by different workers. Kumar (2001) made systematic enumeration of the plant diversity along the course of river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Sinha & Shukla (2004) published the floristic diversity from Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. Shukla & Singh (2007) discussed the diversity and conservation status of grasses of Uttar Pradesh. At the same time an account of sedges and grasses of Eastern Uttar Pradesh was also published by Singh (2007). Studies on assessment and preservation on tree diversity of Uttar Pradesh has been undertaken by Kishore et al. (2011). Recently, flora of Uttar Pradesh (volume I) has been published: volume I by Singh et al. (2016) and volume IⅠ by Sinha & Shukla (2020). Trees of Uttar Pradesh (volume I) has been documented by Chaudhary et al. (2016). Forest flora of Uttar Pradesh after Kanjilal (1966) has been revised recently by Naithani (2018). Pandey et al. (2018) reinvestigated the occurrence of Caesalpinia crista L. from Uttar Pradesh, Khanna (2019) published the angiospermic plants of Terai region of Uttar Pradesh.
At Districts level few floras were also published that include Flora Gorakhpurensis by Srivastava (1976); Flora of Allahabad by Misra & Verma (1992); Flora of Agra by Sharma & Dhakre (1995); Flora of Dudhwa National Park by Singh (1997), Flora of Lucknow by Singh & Khanuja (2006), Flora of Aligarh by Bi & Siddiqui (2012) Flora of Etawah and Auraiya districts by Singh & Misra (2014) and Floristic diversity of Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary by Khanna (2015). Apart from these district level floras some important scattered floristic studies were also started in some districts of state that include Agra (Watts 1953; Bhardwaja et al. 1956); Allahabad (Srivastava 1938, 1949; Panigrahi & Arora 1962; Panigrahi & Rajagopal 1967a, 1967b, 1968; Panigrahi & Saran 1968; Verma 1973; Dubey & Agarwal 1978; Verma & Misra 1979,1982; Misra & Verma 1983a, 1992b and Sharma & Pandey 1984); Banda (Sinha & Verma 1986a, 1986b, 1987, 1988a, 1988b, 1992, 1996); Verma & Sinha, 1985a, 1986); Bahraich (Panigrahi et al. 1969; Saini 2005a, 2006b, 2006c; Maliya & Dutt 2010; Maliya 2012a & 2012b; Kumar et al. 2015); Chaudhary et al. (2014); Basti (Singh et al. 1985); Bijnor (Sharma & Murti 1990; Khan 2000). Bulandshahar (Singh 1969); Deoria (Singh 1994, 1995, 2006b); Fatehpur (Dixit et al. 1984a, 1984b; Dixit & Dutt 1985); Ghaziabad (Vardhana 2007); Ghazipur (Mishra 2013); Gonda (Singh 1991); Gorakhpur (Dixit et al. 1966; Panigrahi & Saran 1967; Sahai & Sinha 1968; Gupta 1969; Singh & Dixit 1972; Ansari 1977, 1986, 1996, 2006; Ansari & Chandra 1990, 1992; Ansari & Srivastava 2006; Srivastava et al. 1987; Srivastava 1993; Saini 1996); Hamirpur (Bhattacharya et al. 1964; Narain 2000, 2001, 2005); Hastinapur and Merrut (Murty & Singh 1961); Jaunpur (Singh & Dixit 1969; Singh & Singh 1979); Lakhimpur Kheri along with Dudhwa National Park (Singh 1979, 1982a 1982b, 1992; Singh & Bhati 1979; Singh & Tomar 1982; Singh & Maheshwari 1984, 1985b); Lalitpur of Bundelkhand region (Verma & Ranjan 1995; Ranjan & Verma 1995, l996; Ranjan 1997, 2005); Lucknow (Anderson 1951; Patil 1960,1963; Kapoor 1962a; Srivastava 1963; Balapure & Srivastava 1964; Sharma 1964; Trivedi & Sharma 1965; Hussain & Kapoor 1970; Balapure 1971; Saini 1990a, 2000b; Singh & Shah 1990; Singh & Srivastava 2000; Rai et al. 2007); Mirzapur ( Rao (Son Valley) 1958; Srivastava 1955; Bhattacharya 1963, 1964; Shukla & Verma 1988); Sonbhadra (Singh & Dubey 2012; Kushwaha et al. 2016, 2018); Moradabad (Paliwal & Singh 1982); Muzaffarnagar (Gupta 1961); Saharanpur (Malik 2015); Shahjahanpur (Sharma & Dhakre 1993; Sharma et al. 2007); Varanasi (Joshi & Reddi 1969; Roy 1971; Varshney 1971; Dubey & Kishore 2021).
Apart from these important floristic works various workers have explored the Aquatic and Marshy vegetation of many parts of Uttar Pradesh from time to time but no complete account of all aquatic and marshy vegetation has been documented yet from the State. Recently Biodiversity of Aquatic and Semi–aquatic plants of Uttar Pradesh (With special reference to eastern Uttar Pradesh) have been published by D.C. Saini et al. (2010). Aquatic and Wetland Flora of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh has been documented by P. Katiyar et al. (2018). Following are some important contributions made by different workers covering different places of the state are given as under:
Sen (1959) conducted Ecological studies on aquatic and swampy vegetation of Gorakhpur district, later on Sinha (1968) came out with a supplement to the aquatic and swampy vegetation of Gorakhpur. Bhattacharya & Malhotra (1964) started exploring the aquatic plants of Mahoba in Hamirpur district; Singh & Singh (1972) came out with aquatic angiosperms of Jaunpur region; Singh & Tomar (1982) wrote aquatic and marshland flora of Kheri district; Maheshwari & Tomar (1983) contribution to the wetland flora of Sitapur district; Srivastava et al. (1987) wrote aquatic angiosperms of Gorakhpur; Singh & Singh (1991) wrote aquatic and semi–aquatic plants of Deoria district; Singh & Srivastava (2000) published diversity and economic importance of wetland flora of Eastern Uttar Pradesh; Maliya & Singh (2004) documented the diversity of aquatic and wetland macrophyte vegetation in Uttar Pradesh; Sharma et al. (2005) published flora of Yamuna ravines of Mathura; Sinha & Dixit (2000, 2004) published floristic composition of Salon district; Singh (2006a) documented aquatic and wetland flora of Varanasi district; Sinha (2005) published floristic and vegetation composition of Lakh–Bahosi wetlands of Kannauj district; Maliya (2006) wrote aquatic and wetland flora of Mainpuri district; Srivatava & Srivastava (2007) came out with diversity and economic importance of wetland flora of Gorakhpur district; Singh et al. (2008) documented distribution of Angiospermic macrophytes in waterbodies of Varanasi district; Singh & Ali (2009) on the aquatic angiosperms of district Mau; Ahmad (2011) wrote indigenous uses of wetland plants of Deoband tehsil (district Saharanpur); Maliya (2012b) documented aquatic and wetland macrophytes of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary of Bahraich district; Katiyar et al. (2018) gave an account of the aquatic and semiaquatic plants of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve Uttar Pradesh.
Apart from the above–mentioned studies uses of plants by local communities have also been documented by various workers that include both medicinal as well as ethnobotanical uses. Studies on these aspects on the plants of Uttar Pradesh have been started merely four decades ago. The important contributors in these fields include those of Nayar (1964); Singh et al. (1979, 1985, 1994); Maheshwari et al. (1981a, 1981b & 1986); Saxena & Vyas (1981); Singh & Maheshwari (1983, 1985a, 1985c, 1989 & 1992); Maheshwari & Singh (1984, 1987), Singh & Singh (1985); Singh (1988); Srivastava et al. (1992); Singh & Prakash (1994, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 1998 & 2003); Singh (1996); Ranjan (1996, 1999); Singh & Srivastava (1999); Khanna & Kumar (2000); Singh et al. (2002, 2009); Khanna (2002a, 2002b); Sharma (2002); Pandey & Verma (2002); Srivastava et al. (2003); Kumar et al. (2003); Shukla et al. (2003); Maliya & Singh (2003); Srivastava et al. (2003); Dixit et al. (2004); Prajapati & Verma (2004); Maliya (2004, 2007 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2011a, 2011b); Upadhyay & Singh (2005); Pandey & Verma (2006a, 2006b); Narain & Singh (2006); Narain & Singh (2006); Prakash & Singh (2006); Srivastava & Srivastava (2007); Awasthi et al. (2008); Singh (2008); Raman & Suman 2008; Srivastava & Srivastava (2008); Srivastava (2009); CCRU (2009); Pandey & Tripathi (2010); Sharma & Gaur (2010); Ahmad & Gupta (2010); Mohammed et al. (2011); Srivastava & Pande (2011); Singh (2010, 2012); Kar & Joshi (2014); Yadav et al. (2014); Agnihotri et al. (2017); Srivastava et al. (2018), etc.
Besides, a few sporadic publications on new species, new distributional records for the state and other interesting aspects of the State flora were also published by Kapoor & Srivastava (1960); Rau (1961); Murty & Singh (1961b, 1964, 1966); Kapoor (1962b); Singh (1964); Rajagopal (1965); Rajagopal & Panigrahi (1965, 1966); Malhotra (1966); Singh & Murty (1066, 1967); Dixit & Siddiqui (1966); Husain (1967, 1968); Dixit & Singh (1968); Siddique & Dixit (1969a,1969b); Reddi (1969a, 1969b); Kapoor & Kapoor (1970); Tayal & Bhasin (1970); Hussain & Kapoor (1971); Singh (1971); Bahadur et al. (1973); Gupta et al. (1980); Misra & Verma (1981, I987); Sharma & Singh (1985); Sinha & Verma (1985, 1988a); Verma & Sinha (1985b); Misra (1992); Saini (1991); Dubey (2004); Tomar et al. (2008); Sreedevi et al. (2010); Shukla & Tiwari (2012); Tiwari & Ansari (2012, 2013, 2014); Singh et al. (2013) and Katiyar et al. (2019).
