Floristic diversity and vegetation analysis of Wadi Arar: A typical desert Wadi of the Northern Border region of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Wadi Arar in the Northern border region of Saudi Arabia is one of the most important Wadis of the Kingdom. The present study provides an analysis of vegetation types, life forms, as well as floristic categories and species distribution. A total of 196 species representing 31 families of vascular plants were recorded. Compositae, Gramineae and Leguminosae were the most common families. Therophytes and chamaephytes are the most frequent life forms, indicating typical desert spectrum vegetation. The distribution of these species in the different sectors of the Wadi as well as the phytochoria for the recorded species is provided. Ninety-one species (46.5%) are typical bi-regional. Furthermore, about 105 species (53.5%) are mono- or pluriregional taxa. The highest number of species (136 or 69.5%) was recorded for annual plants, while the lowest number of species (60% or 30.5%) was recorded for perennial, short perennial or annual to biennial species.

Floristic diversity and vegetation structure of Al-Dissah area northwestern Saudi Arabia

“…The dominance of therophytes in the study area is characteristic of arid deserts where they usually bloom and form luxurious growth in rawdhat, wadis and at the base of stable dunes (Gomaa, 2012). In the present study the ascendancy of therophytes and chamaephyts in the vegetation spectra of AlDissah area agrees with the spectra of vegetation in desert and semi -arid habitats in other parts of Saudi Arabia as descr ibed by some authors as Alatar et al (2012), Osman et al (2014), andAl-Mutairi et al (2016). This view is also consonant with the vegetation spectra in the northern part of the eastern desert of Egypt and other parts of the Middle East as Zahran and W illis (1992) and El -Bana and Al-Mathnani (2009).…”

Floristic Diversity and Ecological Characteristics of Historical Kalash Valley (Pakistan)

“…The dominance of therophytes and hemicryptophytes in the valley indicates that the area is under great anthropogenic pressure like deforestation and overgrazing that is destroying the natural habitat for other classes and the vegetation is dominating by annual plants. Our findings are supported by Nazir, Malik 2006;Guo et al, 2009;Kar et al, 2010;Manhas et al, 2010;Fatna et al, 2014;Khan et al, 2014;Osman et al, 2014;Hussain et al, 2015;Badshah et al, 2016;Baykal, Atamov, 2016 andShaheen et al, 2016 that enlisted therophyte plants dominating in such degraded dry and arid environments.…”

Benzoic Acid Derivatives of Ifloga spicata (Forssk.) Sch.Bip. as Potential Anti-Leishmanial against Leishmania tropica

“…Ifloga spicata, which belongs to the family Asteraceae, is an annual herb used as whole plant for the treatment of skin diseases like dermatosis and allergies, and in decoction form for cardiac diseases [25][26][27]. Approximately 20 different species of the Asteraceae family have been found to possess anti-leishmanial potentialities [28].…”