page_title: Wildlife of Egypt
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Wildlife of Egypt / Flora
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Zygophyllum album (Tetraena alba) bei Metlaoui, TunesienEnglish: Zygophyllum album (Tetraena alba) near Metlaoui, Tunisia
context_page_description: The wildlife of Egypt is composed of the flora and fauna of this country in northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia, and is substantial and varied. Apart from the fertile Nile Valley, which bisects the country from south to north, the majority of Egypt's landscape is desert, with a few scattered oases. It has long coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Suez, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. Each geographic region has a diversity of plants and animals each adapted to its own particular habitat.
context_section_description: The Nile is the lifeline of Egypt, the land bordering the river being rendered fertile by the irrigation it receives. Crops grown in the Nile Valley include cotton, cereals, sugarcane, beans, oil seed crops and peanuts. Date palms grow here as well as sycamore, carob and Acacia. Fruit trees are planted here and eucalyptus has been introduced. The rich delta soil is used for the cultivation of grapes, vegetables and flowers. The papyrus reeds that used to line the river are now restricted to the far south of the country, as are the crocodiles and hippopotamuses that also used to be plentiful.
  Large parts of the Western Desert are completely devoid of vegetation. The plants that do grow are adapted to the arid conditions and tend to be small and wiry, have small, leathery leaves, long shallow roots to exploit any available water, prickles or thorns to deter herbivores, and sometimes thick stems or leaves to store water. They include acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses. Some plants adopt an ephemeral life style, sprouting or springing into life when rain falls, rapidly reaching the flowering stage and producing long-lived durable seed. In depressions in the Western Desert, some plant communities are dominated by Zygophyllum album, Nitraria retusa and Tamarix nilotica. In the Siwa Oasis there are small lakes, reedbeds dominated by Phragmites australis and Typha domingensis, and saltmarshes with Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, Juncus rigidus, Alhagi maurorum, Cladium mariscus and Cressa cretica.
  In the mountains of the Eastern Desert grows the tree Balanites aegyptiaca, the open patchy woodland being remnants of forests that used to cover this region. In the Gulf of Suez coastal area the rainfall is supplemented by condensation from clouds. Water may ooze from cracks, flow down runnels and collect in potholes. Here mosses, ferns and various vascular plants grow, and Ficus pseudosycamorus and  stunted date palms grow from cracks.
  The flora of the Sinai Peninsula mountains is very varied and is largely of Irano-Turanian origin. Here soil and plant litter accumulates in crevices and depressions in the rock and provides anchorage for roots. The commonest plant is Artemisia inculta, and rocky slopes support shrubs, semi-shrubs and trees.
caption: Zygophyllum album, a desert plant
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