Re-assessment of the near-endemic taxa in the Egyptian Flora

Abstract

This paper aims to answer the following questions: 1- what is the actual number of near-endemic taxa in the Egyptian flora?, 2- what are the reasons and justifications for addition or exclusion of plants to or from the final list of near-endemic taxa?, 3- what are the conservation categories of near-endemic taxa according to IUCN?, 4- How can we make a red list of these taxa?, 5-what are the services and goods offered by near-endemic taxa?, and 6- what are the threats that impact these taxa most?. These aims are achieved through preparing a recent list for the near-endemic taxa and their habitats in the Egyptian flora. The lists were analyzed in terms of taxonomic diversity, life and sex forms, size structure, flowering activity, dispersal types, economic potential, threats and national floristic distribution, and IUCN categories. The total number of near-endemic taxa in the prepared recent list is 73, belonging to 58 genera and 28 families; and were recorded in 11 habitats. The life form represented most is the therophytes while the ballochores and pogonochores are the most represented dispersal types. There was a gradual increase in the frequency of the flowered taxa until reaching a maximum value from March to May, and then decreased again reaching a minimum value from August to January. Near endemics are distributed in Egypt and adjacent countries as follows: 39 taxa with Palestine, 19 with Libya, 8 with Saudi Arabia, 4 with Sudan, 2 with Jordan, and only one with Lebanon. Fifty-one taxa had a distribution in only one phyto-geographical region, while the remaining taxa had a distribution in two or more regions. All near-endemic taxa have at least one aspect of economic goods and exposed to at least one type of threats, where the most represented good was the medicinal uses, while over-collecting and over-cutting were the most represented threats. In this paper, 30 near-endemics were evaluated according to IUCN categories as follows: 12 endangered, 5 critically endangered, 4 extinct and 1 vulnerable, while 8 species are data deficient. In addition, 36 near-endemics were also evaluated in previous studies according to IUCN categories as follows: 15 endangered, 11 critically endangered, 7 vulnerable, 2 rare and 1 least concern