Updating the checklist of the alien flora in Egypt

Abstract

The present study aims to update the list of the alien species in the Egyptian flora, which prepared from literature reviewing, field trips and herbaria consultation. The recent list includes 250 taxa (11.7% of the Egyptian flora); including 5 subspecies and two varieties; related to 161 genera and 41 families. Three states of alien species are recognized: causals (114 taxa), naturalized (129 taxa) and, invasive (7 taxa). The most represented life form is the therophytes. On the other hand, four geophytes-helophytes and three hydrophytes. Four major habitats supporting the distribution of these species: cultivated land, wetland, ruderal and natural habitats. The cultivated lands are the most represented. These alien taxa belong to 16 origins: 12 in the Old World (with 156 taxa) and four origin belong to New World (with 117 taxa), Pantropic (with four taxa) and palaeotropics (with 11 taxa). The same taxon may have more than origin. The most represented taxa were from South and Tropical America (58 taxa = 23.2 %), South Asia (51 taxa = 20.4 %) followed by Europe (38 = 15.2 %). The highest taxa were recorded in family Poaceae (74), Amaranthaceae s.l. (25), Fabaceae (23), Asteraceae (20), Solanaceae (16) followed Euphorbiaceae (10 taxa).