Native VS the Exotic Flora – Conserve Nature and Enrich Your Ecosystem

Appeal and Out of the box thinking

I strongly appeal to all the people and municipalities of the world, especially the Arabian Peninsula to adapt the best solution and conserve nature by using native flora/shrubs for hedging, fencing, wall beautifications, herbariums, botanical gardens, lawns, and other vegetation projects because of many reasons. The idea is equally good for all the regions of the world but here my main focus is on the desert flora and Arabian Peninsula.

The native biodiversity of the Arabian Peninsula

In the following gallery, different plants and insects of the region are provided. The list is very long but here few important are provided.

The reasons behind the idea

• No need for watering as the native flora are highly drought tolerant and can survive years without rains.
• The native flora can be plant in any type of soil as they are highly salt tolerant in nature
• Mostly, the native flora do not need an fertilizer, pesticides, or mineral suppliments
• They do not need intensive care, saving a thousands of hours of labor time
• A strong support to the flora and fauna biodiversity of the region
• The native flora are ecofriendly, perform far better than exotic plants and better survive in climatic extremes
• Also, native flora provides habitat to the mini-wildlife of the region, like honeybees, whisps, beetles, reptiles, birds, and many others
• The additional but very important role can be fodder production for the camels and other livestock. The stalk trimmed for beautification can be a very good camel feed. The municipility like Abu Dhabi can produce thousands of tons of fodder for camels annualy and can save a huge volume of import expences
• The municipality can save up to million of liter water annually which can be use for other environmental support projects
• The native flora can be use for the herbal medication as the traditional knowledge using the herbs is still very strong in different region
• Such projects will be a great support for nature conservation

We can form miniature herbariums, living walls, live-fencing, and botanical garden in the cities with the native flora

It is really a great theme to use the native flora (highly tolerant to the drought conditions and saline soil textures) for different vegetation projects like herbarium, botanical garden, living walls, living fencing, landscaping, lawns, and other plantation projects. The native plants can fulfill all the purposes with a very low input system.

Alain Municipality has taken great initiatives alread

In many places of the Alain city, you will notice a lot of native flora have been used for the city beautification, like Leptadenia, and other plants (many from the Jable Hafeeth origin), which is really a very environment-friendly act. I would especially suggest flora like Haloxyllon salicornicum and Zygophyllum qatarense for making fences and walls as they can climb on support and get strengthen their stems with time.

Some References for watching and reading

• https://youtu.be/ic2bjlkHIY0
• https://youtu.be/NP_WaLWNgg4
• https://arkbiodiv.com/2017/12/17/the-ice-cream-species-of-plants-for-the-camel-and-goat/amp/
• https://arkbiodiv.com/2017/12/21/part-2-ice-cream-species-of-plants-for-the-camel-and-goat/amp/
• https://youtu.be/1Tz1g5E0QA0