Evergreen oaks, rhododendrons, and conifers predominate in the hills. "sal" ("Shorea robusta"), silk cotton tree ("Bombax ciliata"), "Dalbergia sissoo", "Mallotus philippensis", "Acacia catechu", "Bauhinia racemosa", and "Bauhinia variegata" (camel's foot tree) are some other trees of the region. "Albizia chinensis", the sweet sticky flowers of which are favoured by sloth bears, are also part of the region's flora. A decade long study by Prof. Chandra Prakash Kala concluded that the Valley of Flowers is endowed with 520 species of higher plants ("angiosperms", "gymnosperms" and "pteridophytes"), of these 498 are flowering plants. The park has many species of medicinal plants including "Dactylorhiza hatagirea", "Picrorhiza kurroa", "Aconitum violaceum", "Polygonatum multiflorum", "Fritillaria roylei", and "Podophyllum hexandrum". In the summer season of 2016, a large portion of forests in Uttarakhand caught fires and rubbled to ashes during Uttarakhand forest fires incident, which resulted in the damage of forest resources worth billions of rupees and death of 7 people with hundreds of wild animals died during fires.