Celebrating trees as an important element in the nutritional system

By Hawa al Bellucci

The Geography Group at the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University celebrated the Omani Tree Day which falls on October 31.

The celebration is a reminder of its material and moral value to society, as the Omani environment is rich in many tree species varying in qualities and characteristics according to their different environments.

The Sultanate of Oman annually celebrates this day, which the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said dedicated to the Omani tree, due to its great importance to individuals, society and the environment. The government has enacted laws that seek to preserve it.

The event included a lecture on local trees in the Omani environment, delivered by Engineer Khalfan bin Salem al Farsi, Director of the Animal Control and Licensing Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, in which the types, characteristics, and locations of their spread were highlighted, including, for example:

The Sarh (Maerua Crassifolia) is a member of a large family. It stretches up to 9 metres high, it contains many branches and sometimes covered with thorns. The leaves are small and simple. The flowers are green in groups. They are spread in small numbers scattered in all regions of the Sultanate of Oman in valleys and plain areas.

Ghaf (Prosopis Cineraria): a tree of the family of corneas and is one of the largest local trees in size, height 2-20 metres, a dusty green tree, few and short thorns, feathery compound leaves, greenish-yellow flowers, the fruit is a straight red horn, the seeds are oblong brown. it spreads in all governorates and regions of the Sultanate of Oman, especially sandy areas, and the eastern region contains the largest concentration of this tree.

Al-Elaan (Juniperus Macropoda): A perennial, evergreen, aromatic tree of the coniferous family, about 10 metres high, and spread mainly in the interior region of the heights of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar and Jabal Shams.

Frankincense (Boswellia sacra): tree up to 5 metres high, with a single trunk or several trunks arising from the base crust and leafy, scaly small branches and wild densely, leaves successive, gathered at the ends of the branches individual feathers oblong, flowers in the form of clustered axillary clusters At the tips of the branches its colour is yellow and turns to red and then to black. The fruit is an inverted capsule in the shape of a single seed. It grows naturally in the arid region of the mountains of Dhofar.