Articles

The Surif area, located in the northwestern part of the Hebron Governorate, is a significant component of the Mediterranean vegetation in southern Palestine, owing to its diverse topography, climatic conditions, and geological formations, as well as its long history of human land use. Furthermore, its location situated in a transitional zone between the Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, and Saharo-Arabian biogeographic regions contributes to substantial plant diversity and the coexistence of species with distinct ecological and geographical affinities. Materials and Methods: A vegetation survey was conducted in seven representative areas of Surif, southern Palestine, using the Braun-Blanquet method. A total of 266 tree and shrub species were analyzed using cluster analysis, Euclidean distance, and Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) to assess floristic relationships. Taxonomic classification was verified against international botanical databases. Results and Discussion: One major plant community was identified the Pinus halepensis–Cupressus sempervirens association characterized by Mediterranean pines and broad-leaved tree species. Phanerophytes were the dominant life form (36.09%), followed by chamaephytes (28.19%). Thirteen endemic or regionally restricted species (4.88%) highlighted the area's conservation significance. The vegetation composition reflected climatic, edaphic, topographic, and anthropogenic influences. Conclusion: Surif is characterized by rich Mediterranean forest vegetation. Habitat protection, maintaining connectivity, regulating grazing, and monitoring endemic species are essential for biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management.

Al-Dawaimah is an ancient Canaanite Palestinian village, occupied in 1948 by Israel, and belongs to inframediterranean to thermomediterranean thermotype and arid, semi-arid, and dry ombrotype. The study presents, a region rich in many plant vascular, and it is part of the Palestinian coast, North Africa, the Negev and the Sinai desert, in addition to the mountainous hills of Palestine located west of the Hebron, Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The objective is to identify and update the flora and vegetation in the area of Al-Dawaimah and its neighboring areas in west Hebron of Palestine. Methodology: More than 270 plant specimens have been taken from Al-Dawaimah and surroundings areas, using Braun-Blanquet, Van der Maarel and Salvador River Martinez methods to study the flora, and phytosociological plants, and 214 x 10 plants plots distributed in area were studied. Result and discussion: Three different plant communities were identified, in different environments between arid, dry- subhumid ombrotype and infra-thermomediterranean thermotype, and different soils as (carbon substrates as brown ruinsenas and terra rossa lands, limestone and others), where more than 214 species of plants have been found, of which 45 (20.02%) are endemic species, and in Raunkiaer's life system, trees represent were, (86; 40.18% trees), (34; 15.88% shrubs), (51; 23.83% chamaephytes), (10; 4.67% geophytes), (16; 7.47% phanerophytes), and (12; 6.54% hemicryptophytes). Conclusion: In Al-Dawaimah area, syntaxonomical performance of these associations are: Quercetalia ilicis Br.-Bl. ex Molinier 1934. Rhamno lycioidis-Quercion cocciferae Rivas Goday ex Rivas-Martinez 1975. 1. Rhamnus palaestinae- Quercetum calliprini ass. nova., Pistacio lentisci -Rhamnetalia alaterni Rivas-Martínez 1975. 2. Ceratonio siliquae -Pistacetum lentisci ass. nova., Junipero phoeniceae- Pinon acutisquamae A.V. Pérez et Cabezudo in A.V. Pérez et al. 1988 corr. Rivas-Martinez. et al. 2002. Pinetalia halepensis Biondi et al. 2014. 3. Junipero phoeniceae- Pinetum halepensis ass. nova.