An Annotated Checklist to the Chenopod Flora of Sudan

The aims of the present study are to provide biodiversity assessment and to contribute to the updating the flora of Sudan. A total of (28) species belonging to (15) genera were compiled to comprise members of the family Chenopodiaceae in the Sudan, with the addition of (12) new records. Range extension of (6) species and habitatspecific trends of (10) species were recorded. These species were compiled as a result of comprehensive literature review, herbarium collections and long-term field surveys. Anabasis ehrenbergii, Kochia cana, Sevada schimperi were previously recorded in the main Flora but were no longer reported by subsequent floristic studies (specially along the Red Sea Coastal region), and may be regarded as extinct or vanished. The disappearance of these species was attributed to destruction of natural habitats and climatic changes, suggesting the need for conservation efforts.


Introduction
Sudan is one of the African countries whose flora and vegetation are scarcely studied and the available data are limited to few regions and families or are relatively old, and in need for an update or revision.
The Chenopods of the Sudan were last documented by . Since then, numerous changes have occurred in the flora and no attempt was made for updating. Many floristic studies reporting new records, have already been published or are included in academic theses, dissertations or reports, covering different regions of Sudan, should be added to the flora. They are dispersed in local, regional and international sources and are often difficult to access and less frequently compiled. Moreover, many plants have changed names in view of recent taxonomic studies and many plants have been introduced and became naturalized.
Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot family) is a vascular plant family with probably 110 genera and 1700 species and inhabiting mainly arid to semi arid, deserts, disturbed, agricultural, coastal and saline habitats (Zhu et al. 2003, Kadereit et al. 2003). Members of this family are mostly herbs or shrubs, rarely dwarf trees, mostly xerophytic or halophytic (Freitag et al. (2001 According to , the family Chenopodiaceae is represented by 16 species belonging to 9 genera. This number of species appear to be low considering the country size, presence of several climatic and vegetation belts (FAO 2005).
The aim of the present study is to bring together more recent information on members of the family Chenopodiaceae documented in diverse sources and herbaria in an attempt to provide the basis for further studies on indigenous species, biodiversity assessments, and to facilitate subsequent taxonomic works contributing to update the flora of Sudan.

Material and Methods
The present study has been compiled based on literature sources, herbarium collections deposited at (KHU), and long-term field surveys. The literature surveys was conducted on various sources documenting the presence and distribution of members of the family Chenopodiaceae in Sudan. Updated nomenclature of the species compiled has been verified using "The Plant List" published at As far as possible, scientific name of each plant is given together with the author of the binomial, synonyms only when the plant name has changed since the publication of the Flora and geographical distribution at the regional level together with citation of source.
All the species (native or naturalized) compiled for the family Chenopodiaceae in the Sudan both recently occurring and previously reported (extinct or vanished), were included and arranged alphabetically, and new species records are marked with an asterisk.

Results
The present study resulted in an updated checklist of members of the Chenopodiaceae known to occur in Sudan, which include (28) species belonging to (15) genera, with an increase of (12) species regarded as new records for Sudan. All the species compiled to comprise members of the Chenopodiaceae in Sudan are documented below.

Discussion and conclusion
A total number of (28) species were compiled to comprise members of the family Chenopodiaceae in Sudan, with the addition of (12) species belonging to (8)  In addition to the species newly recorded in recent studies at the Red Sea Coasts (e.g. Bassia eriophora, Chenopodiastrum murale), some other species (e.g. Anabasis ehrenbergii, Kochia cana, Sevada schimperi), although were previously recorded by ,  and Hassan (1974) in the same area, were not documented by subsequent floristic studies and may be regarded as extinct or vanished. Such changes in the floristic composition were attributed to browsing, climatic changes (Vetaas et al. 2012), and destruction of natural habitats due to salt pans construction and pollution from Port-Sudan and Suakin harbours . The present study also reported geographical range extension of (6) species to new locations found beyond their known range previously cited in the Flora by   Scott (1978) reported that the presence of winged or spinescent accrescent perianth, which distinguish the genera Kochia and Bassia, is not sufficient justification for maintaining them as separate genera and were amalgamated in the genus Bassia. Kochia cana is an intermediate species with the accrescent perianth in the form of scales or horizontal crests. Moreover, Turki et al. (2008) rejected the amalgamation and supported their treatment as different genera.