Agro-biodiversity in Nile Delta, Egypt

This study aims at preparing a recent checklist for the ornamentaland crop plant species and their habitats in Nile Delta and its outskirts. Thelists were analyzed in terms of taxonomic diversity, growth and sex forms,flowering activity, propagation methods, economic potentiality, andnational and global floristic distribution. It aims also at identifying the cropgroups and the environmental factors that govern the gradual change incrop structure. In addition, the herbarium sheets of the collection forcultivated plants in the Nile Delta were prepared and kept in Faculty ofScience Herbarium (TANE) in Tanta University, and a computerized database dealing with the botany environment and economic importance ofthese species was built.In the present study, 255 field Visits were conducted to manylocations in the study area during the period from summer 2012 to summer2014 (155 for ornamental plants and 100 for crop plants). Based on thestudied floristic composition, the 150 gardens of ornamental plants and 98regions of crops were classified using TWINSPAN analysis and ordinatedby using DECORANA analysis.The total number of ornamental plants in the study area was 2392,belonging to 940 genera