Original paper
Bryophyte communities from AlUla County (Saudi Arabia)
Hugonnot, Vincent; Pépin, Florine; Freedman, Jan
52 references
published online: Jan 30, 2026
manuscript accepted: Dec 20, 2025
manuscript received: Nov 26, 2025
Abstract
Bryophytes communities are poorly known in the Arabian Peninsula due to the scarcity of published works. An intensive bryosociological survey with 207 relevés carried out at the beginning of 2024 has allowed for the description of 13 distinct communities: three terricolous ones, two saxicolous, five tufa forming ones, plus three fragmentary communities of uncertain syntaxonomic significance. Many of the communities are probably original but we have refrained from describing them from a syntaxomical formal point of view in such a context of fragmentary knowledge. AlUla County, despite the hyper-arid conditions, is unexpectedly rich in remarkable bryophytic communities, some of which exhibit tropical affinities and relictual character of formerly wetter weather conditions. Many of the high heritage value communities are threatened by human activities, i.e. overgrazing by wandering herds of animals and depletion of the water resource. Finally, a case is made for the improvement of bryophytic vegetation knowledge.
Keywords
Bryosociology • synecology communities • water resource