Saharo-Arabian Region
Encyclopedia
The Saharo-Arabian Region is a floristic region of the Holarctic Kingdom proposed by Armen Takhtajan
Armen Takhtajan
Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian , was a Soviet-Armenian botanist, one of the most important figures in 20th century plant evolution and systematics and biogeography. His other interests included morphology of flowering plants, paleobotany, and the flora of the Caucasus...

. The region is covered by hot deserts, semideserts and savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...

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Distribution

The Saharo-Arabian Region occupies the temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...

 parts of the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

 desert, Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

, Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...

 (geographically defined), Southern Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 and Lower Mesopotamia.

Flora

Much of its flora is shared with the neighboring Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian Regions of the Holarctic Kingdom and Sudano-Zambezian Region of the Paleotropical Kingdom
Paleotropical Kingdom
The Paleotropical Kingdom is a floristic kingdom comprising tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania , as proposed by Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan. Its flora is characterized by about 40 endemic plant families, e.g. Nepenthaceae, Musaceae, Pandanaceae, Flagellariaceae...

. However, about a quarter of the species, especially in the families Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

, Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae, a medium sized and economically important family of flowering plants , are informally known as the mustards, mustard flowers, the crucifers or the cabbage family....

 and Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodiaceae were a family of flowering plants, also called the Goosefoot Family. They are now included within family Amaranthaceae. The vast majority of Chenopods are weeds, and many are salt and drought tolerant. A few food crops also belong to the family: spinach, beets, chard, quinoa, and...

, are endemic.

Endemism

Some of the endemic genera are Nucularia, Fredolia, Agathophora, Muricaria, Nasturtiopsis, Zilla
Zilla
, also known as the American Godzilla, is a movie monster that first appeared as the title character in the 1998 Roland Emmerich film Godzilla. The design by Patrick Tatopoulos is that of a hunched bent-over marine iguana...

, Oudneya, Foleyola, Lonchophora, Gymnarrhena
Gymnarrhena
Gymnarrhena is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family. In the early 21st century, it was classified as the only genus in the tribe Gymnarrheneae....

, Lifago
Lifago
Lifago is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

.
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