Floristic and ecological investigation of Wadi Al—Agar in Al—Jabal Al— Akhdar—Libya

Abstract

Floristic and ecological investigation of Wadi Al—Agar was carried out. The study area lies between 20 45'00" and 20 01' 42" E longitude and 30 35' 00" and 32 01' 15" N latitude of the northeast region of Libya (known as Al—Jabal Al—Akhdar). An open scrub represents the vegetation of the Wadi, which is a very characteristic and natural type of Mediterranean plant communities. A large number of maquis species are found at several elevation parts of the Wadi. About 317 taxa of the vascular plants are investigated in the area. The results revealed that, these taxa are belonging to 66 families two families of Gymnosperms and the remaining 64 families are belonging to Angiosperms. Dicotyledons are represented by 262 species, 171 genera and 55 families and Monocotylendons are represented by 51 species, 37 genera and 9 families. In addition to that, the ten largest families according to the number of species are Asteraceae (46 species), Poaceae (26 species), Lamiaceae (19 species), Apiaceae (13 species), Brassicaceae (13 species), Boraginaceae (11 species), Geraniaceae (11 species), Liliaceae (11 species), and Ranunculaceae (9 species). In this study, there are 18 endemic taxa have been collected. In addition to 23 species reported by some authors, there are no specimens for these species have been collected in Libya. The species Clematis vatalba and Clematis montana have been collected for the first time and they form a new record for Libya.