Survey of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Determine Its Landscaping Values in Home Gardens and Malls in Cairo Festival City, Cairo Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Although medicinal and aromatic plants are used in many pharmaceutical preparations and folk remedies, they have pictorial qualities in the field of ornamental and landscaping. Currently, medicinal and aromatic plants are distributed all over the private and public gardens due to the multiplicity of colors, the habit of their growth, and the different flowering times throughout the year. Therefore, a survey must be conducted to determine the coordinating value of these important plants to determine the extent of their spread and their employment in landscaping. This study materials included medicinal and aromatic plants that grown in Cairo Festival City gardens and malls through 2018 and 2019 years. In this study, growth habit, flowering time, foliage texture, landscape value and mode of propagation of medicinal and aromatic plants grown in the home gardens and shops of that area were noticed. Landscape values of 18 species belonging to 13 families were noticed, the Oleaceae family contained the most species, which were olives, royal jasmine and Arabian jasmine. Flowering of Rosmarinus officinalis, Cassia fistula, Lawsonia inermis and Jasminum smbac during the spring and summer seasons, as well as flowering of Acacia farnesiana during the autumn and winter seasons were recorded. Moreover, it has been found that there are 7 species (Nerium oleander, Tagetes erecta, Pelargonium graveolens, Rosmarinus officinalis, Cassia fistula, Jasminum grandiflorum and Cymbopogon citratus) having three properties for utilization in gardening design. The most common propagation methods for these studied plants were seeds and stem cuttings.