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The complete set of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) specimens representing the agrobiodiversity—that is, the diversity of cultivated forms—of the oasis of al-ʿUlā (Ḥijāz Desert, Saudi Arabia) has been deposited in the collections of the French National Herbarium (Ethnobotany, PAT) at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN).
These specimens have been used in my research on date palm agrobiodiversity, combining anthropological and biological/genetic approaches within an interdisciplinary framework, in collaboration with Muriel Gros-Balthazard, as illustrated by the following publications:
- Is Barnī, a date palm cultivated in the oasis of al-‘Ulā, a true-to-type cultivar or an ethnovariety? Arguments from ethnographic and genetic data
- What lies behind a fruit crop variety name? A case study of the barnī date palm from al-‘Ulā oasis, Saudi Arabia
All 648 herbarium specimens can be viewed here on the website of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle: https://science.mnhn.fr/all/list?re...
– Video presentation 🍿 of the specimen collection:
Sampling date palms in al-’Ulā (Saudi Arabia)