Desert Plants of Egypt’s Wadi El Gemal National Park Paperback – June 1, 2010

Desert Plants of Egypt's WAdi El Gemal National Park by Tamer Mahmoud is a lovely, full color, soft cover book by the microbiologist who was born in Egypt and has been in charge of plants in this National Park since 2003. He began the herbarium and arboretum in the park. He saw the importance of documenting these plants which have survived hundreds and thousands of years in this flood plane of the Red Sea, even though the area averages 17milimeters of rain a year and may go a decade with no rain. The indigenous people have found medicinal and food uses for many of these, which he has documented. Each plant has beautiful photos of all stages of life and the text tells common name, description, importance and usage, and where the plant is found, as well as a small map. Wonderful book for botanical study or for a desert souvenir.

This book is a must-have for nature lovers in Egypt! I am so happy to have found it on the shelves this summer.The introduction provides an excellent overview of the national park - the geomorphology, climate, water resources, ecological features, and more, including information about the local indigenous people, the Ababda, and how they use the plants and land.For each of the plants in the directory, Mr. Mahmoud, a park ranger and botanist, has provided the Latin name, common English name, common local name (in Arabic and transliterated), a description of the plant, a discussion of its importance and uses, and the ecology and distribution. There are also two or three photos of each plant plus a map showing their location in the park. A wealth of information!!And although these plants are all found in Wadi el Gemal, they are also found in other desert areas of Egypt - the Sinai peninsula and Wadi Digla, for example - so Desert Plants will be a useful tool for plant-lovers around the country!

The Wadi El Gemal is now a national park 225km to the south of Hurghada which comprises both desert and marine envirionments. The wadi system drains into the Red Sea and has one of the richest vegetational environments in the Eastern Desert.The introductory chapters of the book describe the climate, environment and geomorphology of the Wadi El Gemal,and discuss in some detail the use fo the land by the local Bedouin, the Ababda.The main body of the book si a directory of the plants that can be found in the Wadi El Gemal, which comprise 140 species in 44 plant families. 117 plants are listed, arranged alphabetically by Latin name. Every entry has several excellent photographs and the following information is shown for each: Sceintific name and family name, commonn English name,common local name, other common names, description, importance and uses, ecology and distribution and a distribution map.The book is well constructed, the paper is glossy and shows off the photographs very well.The book ends with a glosary, a list of plants by Abbadi name, a list of plant families and species identified in the park and a list of references.A lot of work has gone into the information contained in this book. The American University in Cairo Press has produced yet another marvellous and invaluable resource.

analizza con schede e documentando con foto e informazioni diverse piante che crescono in aree desertiche ... interessante e utile

Unentbehrlich für Interessierte an Wadi Gemal! Die einheimischen Führer kennen alle Mitarbeiter des Buches, finden so auch Standorte der Pflanzen, sehr hilfreich ohne Sprachkenntnisse!