AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY ON WADI HASANAT, SALAH DISTRICT, TAIZ GOVERNORATE, REPUBLIC OF YEMEN

The Study area in wadi Hasanat, Salah District, Taiz is located between latitude 14° 989' 26'' and 14° 994' 18'' north and longitude 43° 395' 463'' and 43° 395' 702'' east. Regular periodic field visits (three visits/month) were carried out during the years 2007-2008 to study and collect plant samples for the different taxa and to collect soil samples from the different habitats of the wadi. All the collected plant samples were correctly identified and classified. This study aimed to enumerate and identify the plants in the study area which reached 165 species belonging to 49 families. Out of them are four species of Pteridophyta distributed in three families. Gymnospermeae are represented by three genera, and 46 families. The Angiospermeae were represented by 128 species for 98 genera within 40 families of the Dicotyledoneae, and 33 species from 25 genera within six families of the Monocotyledoneae.. The study showed that the largest five families in the wadi Hasanat are Poaceae "Gramineae" (26 species), Asteraceae "Compositae" (16 species), Acanthaceae (13 species), Euphorbiaceae (11 species) and Asclepiadaceae (9 species). Out of 165 plant species identified in this study, 29species disappeared as a result of road paving at the bottom of the wadi the and exposure of the wadi to over grazing and wrongful woodcutting seriously threatened the wadi. The wadi is considered a beautiful green patch, and wonderful view for Taiz City, and an important center for air purification from the pollutants coming out of Taiz city located on its north. Therefore , it is necessary to preserve the wadi disturbance by a planned way especially with the shrinkage of the green areas surrounding Taiz City day after day.