Doha: The Director of the Quranic Botanical Garden Fatima bint Saleh Al Khulaifi emphasised the vital role played by the garden in preserving the country’s plant resources and preserving them for future generations.
She said that nearly three million seeds of rare plants, Qatari mainland plants and plants mentioned in the Noble Quran and the Noble Prophetic hadiths were collected, and those seeds are preserved in highly efficient facilities to preserve them for decades.
She added that the garden has live assemblies of plants, amounting to 18,500 trees and shrubs of 115 species, and they are preserved in its nurseries, pointing out that during the current year, nearly 55,000 trees and shrubs were produced. Out of a total of 100,000 trees planned to be produced in high-quality production methods and are cared for in the “Plant Resources Conservation” centre in the Qatar Foundation nursery, where they will be distributed to the community as part of the park’s endeavour to support community campaigns for planting trees.
She said that the garden has 2,500 herbal plant samples that represent identification cards bearing the botanical indications of the plant type. These samples, she said, enable botanists to conduct research reviews on the classification of plants and their scientific re-gradation, which is a large environmental footprint for the garden not only at the local level but also at the global level because it allows all scientists at home and abroad to see and benefit from those samples.
Regarding the plant conservation centre and seed bank affiliated with the garden, she said that the centre seeks to preserve plant resources inside and outside their natural habitats, while the seed bank, which is one of the most important facilities in the plant conservation centre, collects the seeds of plant species mentioned in the Holy Quran and the Prophets hadith, both from inside or outside Qatar. She noted that the collection efforts are not limited to the plants of the garden, but also include cooperation with the concerned authorities in Qatar to collect seeds of threatened wild plants, preparing databases for seed characterisation of the Quranic Botanical Garden, as well as plants that grow in different parts of Qatar and conducting studies of seed patterns.
She added that the seed bank includes about three million seeds belonging to about 200 plant species, and sometimes there may be a sufficient stock of seeds for one of the plant species, and at the same time there is a limited number of seeds that are considered wealth according to the scarcity of species in their wild areas and the possibility of obtaining them.
Al Khulaifi said since the beginning of this year nearly 35,000 wild seedlings have been produced within the garden’s programme to grow wild seedlings to rehabilitate ecosystems to donate two and a half million trees to be planted by volunteers in all areas across the country over the next ten years.
