Plant flora of Alaqan region, Tabuk province, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The present study includes survey and identification of the wild plants in Alaqan region (Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia) . Fifteen sites representing different habitats were regularly examined from 2012 to 2014 and its vegetation types were identified. A total of 102 species belonging to 75 genera and 34 families were recorded. The most species rich family was Fabaceae (16 species) followed by the Asteraceae (10 species) and Brassicaceae (eight species); the three families Caryophyllaceae, Poacea and Zygophyllaceae (six species) ; Resedaceae (five species); both Lamiaceae and Chenopodiaceae (four species) whereas, sixteen families were represented by a single species for each. With respect to the life form, therophytes and chamaephytes are the dominating life forms. Therophytes exhibited the maximum number of species with a percentage of 43.14%, followed by chamaephytes (35.35%); hemicrytophyte (9.8%) ; Phanerophyte and Geophytes (5.88%), while the least frequent lifeform was Parasites which represented by three species (2.9%). Saharo-Arabian have the highest share of species (22 species) followed by Saharo-Sindian and Sudano-Zambezian (20 species) while Mediterranean, Saharo-Arabian, Irano –Turanian were represented by 5 species.