Language: Bilingual in English and Arabic
The flora of Iraq is particularly rich and varied, owing to the country's diverse landscapes of deserts, plains, and mountains. Accordingly, plant-based medicine has always played an important role in the daily lives of Iraqis. Edited by experts from both the University of Oxford and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – working in collaboration with Iraqi botanists – A Herbal of Iraq describes fifty plants and their uses in traditional herbal medicine in the region. In addition to the wealth of information it contains, this dual-language English-Arabic herbal is illustrated throughout with archival and contemporary botanical art, making it an object of beauty as well as a helpful resource.
Acknowledgements vii
Foreword by Abdul Jaleel Ibrahim Al-Quragheely, the Doctor of Al-Ashab ix
Introduction
The Flora of Iraq 1
Biogeography 1
Flora 2
Plant communities 3
Desert 3
Mixed shrubland 4
Mountain forest 4
Alpine forest 5
Traditional Herbal Medicine in Iraq 5
About This Book
The selected plants 13
The story of the Doctor of Al-Ashab 13
The Plants 17
References
Index of Latin, English Common and Vernacular Names
Shahina A. Ghazanfar is a senior botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and is a co-editor of Flora of Tropical East Africa (Kew Publishing), author of the Flora of Oman and is currently author and editor of Flora of Iraq. She is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and is recipient of the Linnean Medal (Botany) 2021.
Chris J. Thorogood is Deputy Director and Head of Science of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum and is a wildlife artist, botanical illustrator, and an international best-selling author.