THE PLANTS OF JORDAN An annotated checklist Hatem Taifour and Ahmed El-Oqlah Edited by Shahina Ghazanfar Kew Publishing Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Contents Foreword . v Preface . vi Acknowledgements . vii Introduction . 1 Floristics, vegetation and biogeography . 2 Vegetation and habitats . 3 Biogeography . 8 Physical map of Jordan and map showing the Governorates of Jordan . 10 Herbaria consulted and cited in Checklist . 11 Annotated Checklist . 13 Ferns and fern allies . 11 Gymnosperms . 11 Angiosperms . 12 References and selected bibliography . 154 Index to genera . 157 iii Foreword In the Name of Allah. The Most Merciful. The Most Compassionate. It gives me great pleasure and honour to write the foreword to this very important and eagerly awaited piece of work, The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist. The Royal Botanic Garden at Tal Al-Rumman in Jordan was specifically founded to conserve Jordan’s native plants, and showcase them to the public in such a way that they would be revered and respected. However, it quickly became apparent that a large proportion of the information needed to develop the Garden was quite fragmented and insufficient or missing entirely. Thus, as a first step in achieving the overarching goal of RBG, it was imperative that RBG gathers all available data in order to begin the documentation process that would facilitate the identification and prioritization of propagation of the plants needed to establish the Garden. This process was quite painstakingly slow, as the data was dispersed across the globe and some of which was held in old archival herbarium specimens. Thus, the information had to be repatriated, cross referenced and analysed before making it final. It proved to be precariously difficult to classify and categorize which plants occur in Jordan and whether or not they are native. Thus, quite a few workshops and many meetings were held by RBG with the experts in the field to accomplish this task. Although, there have been several efforts in the past which have tackled this issue, none were as meticulously detailed nor rigorously reviewed as this valuable piece we have here today. This is the very first annotated checklist for the vascular plants of Jordan that brought together both national and international experts that worked arduously together over the years to produce this publication. It is an important reference for Jordan that will hopefully inspire many a young researcher to study Jordan’s flora in more depth. It will also provide a solid framework for conservationists in the region to rely on. Nonetheless as with all checklists and the world of nomenclature it is constantly dynamic and will forever be reviewed and updated. The Royal Botanic Garden at Tal Al-Rumman in Jordan, is privileged to gift Jordan this valuable reference which will become the basis on which future taxonomists and botanists alike will work on and continually update. HRH Princess Basma Bint Ali July 2016 v Preface The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist is a comprehensive list of vascular plants known from Jordan following the classification of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG III 2009; APG IV 2016). It is primarily based on plant collections present at various international and national herbaria (see list of herbaria cited), surveys carried out by the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), published and unpublished records. All families and species have been updated in their classification and nomenclature. With the establishment of the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan in 2005 under the patronage of H.H. Princess Basma Bint Ali, it was befitting that a checklist be produced which would form the basis of a descriptive flora of the country. The EU funded project (BOT ERA 2012-2014) awarded to the Royal Botanic Garden Jordan and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew as a consortium partner, helped in furthering the collections, training staff, preparation and publication of the Jordan Plant Red List (Vol. 1), and the final preparation of this Checklist. The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist covers 112 families and 2531 species (including ferns and gymnosperms) recorded for Jordan. It was decided during the preparation of the Checklist that at least one specimen would be cited for each taxon, or if no specimen was cited then a reference to the species name would be given. This has resulted in some old citations especially those from HUJ dating back to the 1880’s. Where specimens have not been seen, we have placed the entry in the Checklist based on good judgement and references in regional publications. The Checklist may not be comprehensive at this stage, but as a first working list we can only improve on it. This checklist would have never taken off had it not been for the full support of Her Highness Princess Basma Bint Ali whose enthusiasm is pleasantly catching. I would like to thank Tariq Abu Talib, Executive Director of the Royal Botanic Garden Jordan for his support and help in more ways than one. Thank you to Hatem Taifour and Ahmad El-Oqla, who have excellent field experience and knowledge of plants, and who are the main leaders of this Checklist. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by Yaseen Ananbeh, another very experienced field botanist, and Jamil Lahham, Yarmouk University, an excellent botanist and a friend of long standing: thank you both. The support of the other team members of the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan is gratefully acknowledged. I am extremely grateful to colleagues at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew for their help on the EU project which initiated this Checklist. In particular I would like to thank Renata Borosova, Tivvy Harvey, Joanna Osborne, Michael van Slageren and Emma Williams. It is my pleasure to acknowledge the support of many colleagues and friends both in Jordan and UK who have in some way or another played a part in the completion of this Checklist, and with whom I have spent pleasant times in the field in Jordan. In particular I would like to thank Giles Brandson, Habiba Barbara, Sabah Saifan, and Maysa Shishani for making the project interesting for all of us. I am very grateful to Kamal Neimat for his hospitality and for giving us his time so freely and introducing us to the beautiful country of Jordan. vi Finally, I hope that the The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist would be used with as much interest and enthusiasm as has gone into its production. We hope that it will be useful in the field as well in the laboratories for the identification of plants, and will be used by students, foresters, conservationists and all enthusiasts of natural history. The Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan will welcome comments on new distribution records, new findings and corrections to this list. I wish the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan the best of wishes and fully support them in their endeavours to document, protect and conserve the native plants of Jordan. Shahina A. Ghazanfar, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, January 2017 Acknowledgements The Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan sincerely appreciates the cooperation and support of many organizations and people who contributed to the The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist. Our data was facilitated through access to documents, databases and herbaria at the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension, Jordan Badia Research and Development Program, Forestry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Hashemite Fund for Development of Jordan Badia, Yarmouk University, Jordan University of Science and Technology and Al-Bayt University. Our data was strengthened through cooperation from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, American University of Beirut, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Particular thanks go out to HRH Princess Basma Bint Ali and Tariq Abu Taleb, for their support at key stages. Funds for producing an earlier version were received through the BOT-ERA project, “Reinforcing Cooperation between the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan and the European Research Area (ERA),” under grant agreement No. 294416 of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for coordination and support action. Finally, many thanks to Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, for collaborating in this landmark publication. vii Introduction1 Jordan does not have a countrywide flora. The western part of Jordan is covered by Flora Palaestina (Zohary, 1966, 1972; Feinbrun-Dothan 1978, 1986), and by Post & Dinsmore (vols I & II, 1932, 1933). A couple of illustrated field guides illustrate the flora of Jordan (Al-Eisawi 1998; Maani, 2008), but neither is comprehensive. The most recent documentation of the native plants of Jordan is a checklist of vascular plants for Jordan by Al Eisawi (2013) which is countrywide but no specimens are cited for the taxa included. Through the BOT-ERA project (Reinforcing cooperation between the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan and European Research Area, 2012–2014, funded by the EC Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), INCO.2011-6.2 KBBE), an up-to-date checklist of the plants of Jordan was produced which incorporated recent name changes and new distribution records for the country. This Checklist is a further update, incorporating several published and unpublished lists, and survey reports to include all names that have been used, and are in use for the flora of Jordan. All published and unpublished sources are listed under References and Bibliography. The Plants of Jordan: an annotated checklist aims to include all taxa of vascular plants (pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms) found in Jordan, either as native or naturalized aliens. With a few exceptions, cultivated trees, shrubs and herbs are not included. At least one specimen is cited for each taxon; where no specimen is cited, reference to Al Eisawi (2013) or to the RSCN database (database of wild plants kept by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature) is made, and for some species references to other sources are also included.