Abstract
Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori, one of 13 species of the Moringaceae family widely distributed throughout the dry tropics, has the potential to become one of the most economically important medicinal plants in Egypt. However, despite its tolerance for drought and heat, it is also threatened by increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation. Although the phenophase of this species is well documented, almost nothing is known about its period of cambial activity in desert regions. Ring formation and the general environmental adaptability of trees are affected by the timing of cambial activation. In our study site, we observe a distinct coupling of the development of new green leaves at the onset of vegetative growth in October and the phase of cambial activity (November–January). The onset of cambial activity seems to be related to a drop in temperature in October and the onset of torrential rains in the region. There might even be a short phase between the end of cambial activity and the onset of bud formation without xylem formation, but with photosynthetic activity. If so, we assume that all assimilates are stored as non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in the parenchyma of the new ring. This potential gap opens new questions regarding the correlation between NSC storage capacity and the timing of remobilization for subsequent ring formation.
Highlights
The Middle East and northern Africa are expected to experience more severe droughts in the coming decades due to a paralleled increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation resulting from ongoing changes in climate (Dong et al, 2021; El-Geziry, 2021; Tuel et al, 2021)
In contrast to the observations of Hegazy et al (2008), we found that new leaves had started to develop at the time of the last pinning in late October
Our observations indicate that new leaves begin developing in mid-October in the study area, heralding the onset of vegetative growth
Summary
The Middle East and northern Africa are expected to experience more severe droughts in the coming decades due to a paralleled increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation resulting from ongoing changes in climate (Dong et al, 2021; El-Geziry, 2021; Tuel et al, 2021). Severe drought events in the Mediterranean basin have suppressed tree growth and increased tree mortality rates (O’Brien et al, 2017; Cramer et al, 2018; Gauquelin et al, 2018). These conditions are especially tough on endangered species in the region; Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori is one such species, it is known to be drought and heat tolerant (Hegazy et al, 2008). Moringa peregrina is one of 13 species of the Moringa family widely distributed in the dry tropics (Olson and Carlquist, 2001). In Egypt, it has the potential to become one of the most economically important medicinal plants (Senthilkumar et al, 2018) on account of the oil Cambial Activity of Moringa peregrina produced from its seeds, which is widely used in cosmetics and bioenergy (Vaknin and Mishal, 2017)
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