Plant Diversity and Community Structure of the Main Wadis at High Altitudes of the Western Mountains at Taif, Saudi Arabia

Al-Sodany, Yassin; Bazaid, Saleh; Alyasi, Hatim; Majrashi, Ali; Elharthi, Khalaf

doi:10.21608/ejbo.2019.6512.1257

Plant Diversity and Community Structure of the Main Wadis at High Altitudes of the Western Mountains at Taif, Saudi Arabia

Document Type : Regular issue (Original Article)

Authors

¹ Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Kafr El-Sheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt

² Biology Department, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

³ Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

10.21608/ejbo.2019.6512.1257

Abstract

THE PRESENT study aimed at surveying and identifying plant species distributed in the main valleys at high altitudes in the study area, analyzing their vegetation, depicting the prevailing plant communities and assessing the role of the environmental conditions that affect the communities. Seventy-five stands were selected to represent the the vegetation physiognomy and the accompanying environmental variations. The species abundance, life forms, chorotype, and economic uses were determined. The total number of recorded species is 165 species belonging to 128 genera and 47 families. About 69.7% of these species are perennials and 30.3% were annuals. Poaceae and Asteraceae had the highest contributions to the total flora. Chamaephytes had the highest contribution, followed by therophytes, phanerophytes, hemicryptophytes and geophytes, while hydrophytes and parasites had the lowest contribution. The economic uses of the recorded species could be arranged in descending order as follows: medicinal > grazing > fuel > human food > other uses. The mono-regional and bi-regional species were the highest, while pluri-regional and cosmopolitans were the lowest. Of the mono-regionals, 36 species were Sudano-Zambezian, 17 species were Irano-Turanean and 16 species were Saharo-Arabian. The application of TWINSPAN on the cover estimates of 165 species recorded in 75 stands, led to the recognition of 8 vegetation groups (communities) at 3rd level of classification (I: Mentha longifolia group, II: Salsola imbricata group, III: Cynodon dactylon group and IV: Pluchea dioscoridis groups on the wetland wadis, and V: Aera javanvica group, VI: Acacia gerrardii var. gerrardii group, VII: Calotropis procera group and VIII: Acacia gerrardii var. gerradii-Solanum incanum groups on multi-wadis).

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