Abstract
Vegetation composition and soil attributes in the lower tributaries of Wadi Qena in the Eastern Desert of Egypt are studied
from fifty-one stands in three wadis, namely Wadi El-Ghuza, Wadi Naq El-Teir, and Wadi El-Atrash. Altogether, fifty-two
species from twenty families and thirty-nine genera, mainly of the Saharo-Arabian focus of distribution, were recorded.
Chamaephytes and therophytes constituted 73 % of the main bulk of life form the spectrum of the recorded flora. After the
removal of unicates, the presence/absence datasets of thirty-six species and fifty-one stands were classified by TWINSPAN
yielding four vegetation groups: Zygophyllum coccineum-Zilla spinosa-Calligonum polygonoides (group A) mainly in Wadi
Naq El-Teir, Zygophyllum coccineum-Zilla spinosa (group B) in Wadi El-Ghuza, Morettia philaeana (group C) from the
southern part of Wadi El-Atrash, and Zygophyllum coccineum-Morettia philaeana (group D) from the northern part of Wadi
El-Atrash. These groups were clearly separated along the first two axes of DCA. Soil-vegetation correlations performed by
Redundancy Analysis (RDA) indicated that axis 1 was shaped by calcium and organic matter, while axis two was controlled
by pH and phosphate contents. Variations of species richness and Shannon diversity index within the separated TWINSPAN
groups were highly significant.