Plant Communities Associated with Egyptian Endemic Flora

Abstract

Despite the numerous studies that have addressed the natural and ruderal vegetation of the Egyptian habitats in a certain regions, a few studies have dealt with the vegetation of the whole country, but no study has accounted for the plant communities associated with the endemic plants of Egypt’s. The present study aims at deign distribution for the endemic taxa using grid map analysis, analyzing their vegetation, depicting the prevailing plant communities associated with them and assessing the role of the edaphic and environmental factors that affect the communities. Six hundred and nineteen stands were investigated to recognize the plant communities associated with the Egyptian endemic flora from 2018 to 2023. The application of TWINSPAN on the cover estimates of 1026 species (21 endemics and 1005 associated) led to the recognition of 8 vegetation groups at the 4th level of classification. The vegetation groups are named as follows: I: Echinops taeckholmianus, II: Malva parviflora, III: Origanum syriacum subsp. sinaicum, IV: Ifloga spicata subsp. elbaensis, V: Allium roseum, VI: Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, VII: Atractylis carduus var. marmarica and VIII: Atractylis carduus var. marmarica- Anabasis articulata. Soil analysis showed that most of the soils are alkaline and non-saline according to pH values. Four cations (Ca++, Mg++, Na+ and K+) and four anions (Co3 --, HCO3-, SO4-- and Cl-) were determined for each species as soluble salts. The majority of soil samples had sandy to loamy sandy textures. Soil samples are characterized by low content of organic matter.