Professor Ekhlas Abdel Bary collecting samples for her study.
DOHA: An expert at Qatar University’s Environmental Studies Center has launched the first comprehensive study of Qatar’s flowering plants.
The two-volume series — The Flora of Qatar — is the culmination of more than four years of research work by Professor Ekhlas Abdel Bary and catalogues 400 plants found in the country, including some so rare it was impossible to get samples of them.
The idea for the new series, incorporating the latest accepted classification of plants based on their genetic relationship, came while Ekhlas was teaching classes on the flora of Qatar and had been collecting specimens for deposit in QU’s herbarium.
She found that as Qatar’s landscape has changed, with expanding infrastructure networks and intensive development, so many of the depressions which supported vegetation and harboured flora have disappeared.
Expansion in agriculture has also led to a number of new introductions and naturalised weeds.
Assisted by a team including scientific photographer Ahmed Abdel Aziz and herbarium technician Muneera Al Mesaiferi, Ekhlas travelled the length and breadth of Qatar in search of plants.
Thorough records of habitat, location, and field notes were kept.
The book details whether a plant is indigenous to the state, its local use and its local names in Arabic and English, as well as ascribing to it a new classification.
She also used previous, less-comprehensive publications as a reference point from which to compare the flora now in existence and travelled to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, UK to view samples at the herbarium there.
The book is accessible to those with a general interest in Qatar’s natural habitat as well as a professional expertise and will be the model reference resource for those interested in taxonomy, ecology, biology and botany in Qatar and the wider Gulf region.
Ekhlas said: “It’s a great privilege to have been able to bring together a comprehensive guide to all Qatar’s flora. It was all-consuming on many occasions, and has been eight years in the making, with invaluable contributions from many colleagues in Qatar and beyond. I hope that this now will be a helpful reference point for all those interested in the subject, now and in the future.”
The Peninsula
