Images of dry tropical habitat: Oman
Though Arabia is
usually associated with baking desert, the parts of the peninsula that reach
into the tropics are often much richer in species than similarly dry parts
of the temperate zone. One part of Oman, a region called Dhofar, supports
a unique pocket of tropical deciduous forest.
Click on a thumbnail
for a larger image:
Plants
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The Frankinscence
Tree ( Boswellia sacra in the Burseraceae) growing in the
Dhofar region of southern Oman
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In case
you're wondering what frankinscence is, it is the gum that exudes from
the bark of the Frankinscence Tree that is used as a wonderfully aromatic
inscence. In southern Oman, it is burned in special clay burners.
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Flowers
of a species of Cordia in cultivation in the Botanic Garden
of Sultan Qaboos University.
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A very
odd, unidentified tree (Capparaceae?) near Al Ayun, Dhofar.
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This strange
plant is an Adenium, a relative of oleander. It was growing on a rocky
hillside near the ocean in Dhofar. Many plants of dry tropical areas have
water-storing trunks.
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Animals
Landscapes
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Hot
summer air blasting out of the Arabian interior creates an inversion layer,
causing the southern face of a low escarpment in southern Oman to catch
just enough of the summer monsoon to support a rich, unique tropical
decidous forest.
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This
image looks generally southward to the Arabian Sea from just above the lip
of the escarpment. This image was taken just a few kilometers from the previous
one, showing how abrupt the transition is between the forest on the escarpment
face and the drier habitats above it.
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The
inversion layer blocks the penetration of moist air northward into the
interior. This photo was taken about 30 kilometers from the previous one.
The large tree is the unidentified plant shown in photo 4. above, and
the black shrubs are Frankinscence Trees.
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This
large watercourse, the Wadi Ghul, drains the southern flanks of the Jebel
Akhdar in northern Oman. The green shrubs in the foreground are Euphorbia
larica. The white-trunked tree is Moringa peregrina. Numerous
Acacia tortilis trees can be seen below. The shrubs include
the Caper Family member Ochradenus.
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The
rocky Wadi Muaydin in northern Oman supports trees such as Acacia tortilis,
Ziziphus spina-christi, and Acridocarpus orientalis.
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This
image is from northern Oman, showing a landscape with Acacia trees,
numerous grasses, and abundant shrublets of Fagonia.
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- acknowledgements
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México
Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria
Copilco, Coyoacán A. P. 70-367
C. P. 04510, México, D. F.
MÉXICO
(52) 55 5622-9127 fon (52) 55 5555-1760 fax
molson@ibiologia.unam.mx
all material © 2002 Mark E Olson