Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 91, July 2009, pp. 1-31.

4 Botanists today divide the country's flora into seven distinct groups:        Mediterranean Irano-Turanian, which is also found on the Asian steppes of the Syrian desert, in Iran, Anatolia and the Gobi Desert Saharo-Arabian, which is also found in the Sahara, Sinai and Arabian deserts Sudano-Zambesian, typical of Africa's subtropical savannas Euro-Siberian Plants that grow in more than one of these regions Species from the Americas, Australia and South Africa that have started growing in Palestine without human assistance. Four major features have shaped this floral diversity: the country's location and topography; its rock and soil formations; its climate; and the impact of man. The human influence has been so powerful that it has actually changed some landscapes: during the countless years that man has roamed this area, he has collected and cultivated plants for food, cleared land for agriculture, domesticated grazing animals, selected and deified holy trees, and brought new plants into the country. The Israeli occupation forces destroyed and uproote

Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 91, July 2009, pp. 1-31. | Page 4