Specie

English Name

Description

Acacia

Acacia

A small tree 2.5–14 m tall which can be used for its timber, both for construction and for fuel. Pods and shoots used as vegetable, and used as fodder, particularly for sheep and goat (still used today in the Sudan) and cattle. The bark contains tannin which can be used for tanning and dyeing leather, and the wood can be used for extracting gum arabic which is still used in making candles and paints. posts, buildings, water-pipes, well-planking, plows, cabinet-work, wheels, mallets and other implements. Wood yields excellent firewood and charcoal

Ancillaria

Balanites

Brachiaria

Cenchrus

Christ’s-thorn bush

See Zizyphus

Conus

Digitaria

Member of the Panicoidae family - a wild plant.

Echinocloa colona

Flax

See Linum

Gramineae

A wheat-like grass

Hordeum distichum

Two-roll Barley

Hordeum hexastichum

Six Row Barley

Hordeum vulgaris

Four Row Barley

Linum usitatissimum

Flax

Cultivated for its fiber (to make linen) and oil.  Prefers temperatures which are cool temperate or subtropical - and is therefore suitable in the north of Egypt but not the south. It has a relatively long ripening period between flowering and harvesting. It has a shallow root and is therefore adaptable to irrigation.

Lens culinaris

Lentils

Lolium temulentum

Rye

Maerua crassifolia

Millet

Natica

Nymphaea

Oliva

Panicum

Panicoidae

Pennisetum

Millet

Pila

Pisum sativum

Pea

Ricinus communis

Castor oil plant

Salsola baryosma

Setalia

Sorghum

A variety grass (family Poaceae) which is used for human food (grain) and animal fodder (stalks). It is perennial, heat and drought tolerant and is sown in the Spring.

Tamarix

Tamarisk

Deciduous shrubs or small trees, although sometimes leaves survive the winter. Alkaline and saline condition tolerant.  Absorb large quantities of any available water.

Triticum compactum

Triticum dococcum

Triticum monococcum

Typha

Cattail/bulrush

Grows on wet, saturated, and flooded soils in environments like marshes, fens, lake margins, and irrigation canals. It is tolerant of constant flooding prefers water depths of no more than a metre. Tolerant of slightly brackish waters. Used for thatch, matting, and can be used to make simple floating vessels like canoes.

Urochlea

Wild grain.

Zizyphusum

Christ’s Thorn Bush