The ethnobotanical importance and conservation value of native plants in eastern Arabian Peninsula

Abstract

The eastern coastal area of the Arabian Peninsula is subject to overgrazing, agricultural activities, oil pollution and urban encroachments. These activities cause habitat destruction and may have changed species composition. The current study aimed at assessing conservation and ethnobotanical importance of plants and how they are affected by environmental threats. The natural vegetation composition was studied and the ethnobotanical relative importance (RI) index and the species conservation index (SCI) were calculated. The results showed that native plants provide many ecological and socioeconomic services, including the provisioning of food, medicine, and energy. The native species (>77%) were reported to potentially be used for more than 170 therapeutic applications and for curing various human ailments. The medicinal plants (15%) attained RI value >50% reflecting high versatility and importance in local pharmacopeia. The number of threats to species showed significant positive association with SCI index and insignificant positive association with RI index. The study indicated that the current human activities may have negatively impacted provisioning of ecosystem services especially those offered by native plants. The ability of the natural ecosystems to sustainably provide services will be enhanced by adoption of land management practices that restore species and reduce pressure on native plants.

Species distribution patterns of the weed flora in mango orchards of Ismailia Governorate, Egypt:implications for conservation

“…The same conclusion was reported by Shaltout et al (2010) and Eid and Shaltout (2014). The dominance of therophytes seems to be a response to the hot-dry climate, topographic variation and biotic influence (Heneidy and Bidak, 2001). On the contrary, the low number of perennials (20.59%) might be related to the anthropogenic activities including various cropping practices, ploughing, weeding, harrowing, collecting food and fodder species, which could affect vegetative growth structures, as well as the life cycles of the perennial weeds; this fact also reported by Abd El-Ghani and Abdel-Khalik (2006), Abd El-Ghani et al (2013 and Bhattacharjya and Sarma (2016).…”

Characterizing Biomass Yield and Nutritional Value of Selected Indigenous Range Species from Arid Tunisia

“…Helianthemum lippii is related to desert truffles and establishes mycorrhizal symbiosis with them [79,80] and is therefore of important ecological value. Helianthemum lippii is one species of the genus Helianthemum that, according to several studies, exhibits anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties [81][82][83] Perennial plant belongs to the Plantaginaceae family, with a rosette hemicryptophyte form. It is recognizable by its silky, hairy aspect and lanceolate leaves with wavy margins.…”

Inaccessible Zones of Jabal Salma, Ha’il Region in Saudi Arabia: A Reservoir for Native Seed Species

“…The aforementioned ministry has launched a restoration program for natural landscapes by planting four million trees by the end of year 2020. This program is designed to revive the Saudi flora by re-planting native species including trees and shrubs (Heneidy et al, 2017). Therefore, the Saudi government needs to look carefully for original resources of local seed species that can be planted in millions by 2020.…”