Annuals in Porcupine Diggings and Ibex Wallows in the Negev Desert Highlands

Abstract

Of the approximately 200 annual plant species occurring in central part of the Negev Desert highlands, only a certain number are common. These emerge and cover large areas almost every year that the rainfall reaches about the annual average of 100 mm or higher, in winter (Chap. 1; Figs. 1.3-1.5; Table 1.1). Only a few of these species are very common and are the dominant annuals that cover large areas in crowded populations (Zohary, 1966, 1972; Feinbrun-Dothan, 1978, 1986; Danin and Orshan, 1999). In these desert areas there are other annual plant species which are the dominant plants only once in some years (Evenari and Gutterman, 1976; Loria and Noy-Meir, 1979/80; Gutterman, 1993, 1994a, 1998a).