ABSTRACT
Lebanon, a country on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, has a rich fl oral diversity. Relative to its area, Lebanon has more wild plant species density than any European country. With a surface area of only 10452 square kilometer, more than 2600 species of wild plants can be found. The fl ora of Lebanon has been of interest to several botanists, most popular being Post (1932) and Mouterde (1966, 1970, 1983) who have published monumental works documenting the plants of Lebanon and neighboring countries. Following their steps, Tohme and Tohme (2007, 2013) have compiled the most recent comprehensive fl ora of the country. Their data indicated that out of the 2597 plants identifi ed, 109 are endemic to Lebanon, about 52% of Lebanese fl ora is not found in Europe and 1185 species are particularly known in the eastern Mediterranean region. This richness, added to a diversity of different cultural practices in the Lebanese social strata, has contributed to a variety of approaches across generations for utilization of Medicinal and
1 Department of Biotechnology, Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI). a Email: nisrine_karam@hotmail.com 2 Departments of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture. 3 Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Lebanese University. 4 Genetic Resources Section, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). 5 Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. b Email: rtalhouk@aub.edu.lb 6 Nature Conservation Center (NCC), American University of Beirut, Lebanon. * Corresponding authors
Aromatic Plants (MAP) that is still, to a certain extent, in practice to-date. However, this richness of plant biodiversity and more particularly of MAP is at risk due to degradation of natural habitats as a result of uncontrolled growth of urbanization, habitat destruction, and overexploitation of the resources. This further contributes to the loss of the MAP genetic diversity (Noun 2007, MoA/UNEP/GEF 1996, UNDP 2013).
