Plant Diversity in Saudi Arabia

an introduction

Plant resources are an essential part of a country's natural wealth. Unsustainable use of it would lead to irreparable damage to our ecosystems.

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                      The natural resources, particularly the wild plants are widely regarded as a vital component of Saudi Arabia's natural wealth. The plant diversity of Saudi Arabia is relatively not simple as one would expect for a 'desert' country. Rather, it is a complex flora having affinities with the floras of East Africa, North Africa, the Mediterranean countries and the Irano-Turanian countries.

               Saudi Arabia is a large country with an arid climate in most parts of the regions. However, due to the topographic differences and variations in soil compositions, a significant number of species and plant associations can be seen in many places.

 
 

                 Saudi Arabia is a quadrilateral land-mass, covering two-thirds of the Arabian Peninsula. It extends about  2,250,000 sq km and consists of a variety of habitats such as sandy and rocky deserts, mountains, valleys ('wadis'), maedows ('raudhas'),  salt-pans ('sabkhas'), lava areas ('harrats'), etc. Country has most types of terrains which can be, generally, divided into two distinct groups of  rocks; the Arabian Shield and the Arabian Platform. 

The Arabian shield is formed of igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age, which have been uplifted on the entire western sides of the country and the Arabian Platform, situated in the Central and Eastern parts of the country, is composed of unaltered, younger sedimentary rocks. The latter group of rocks consists of escarpments, ridges, buttes, rocky and sandy deserts, etc.

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   Site conceived, designed and maintained by Dr. Jacob Thomas, Herbarium, Dept. of Botany & Microbiology, King Saud University, Riyadh