الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present study provides a detailed description of the floristic features, ecological features and economic potentialities of five spiny leaved species of family Asteraceae namely, Atractylis carduus, Carduus getulus, Carduus pycnocephalus, Carthamus tenuis and Echinops spinosus growing naturally in the Deltaic Mediterranean coastal land of Egypt and, it aims at the following objectives :Recogniton of the habitat type of the selected spiny leaved species of family Asteraceae in the Deltaic Mediterranean coastal land of Egypt, study the floristic features including: record of species, life-span, life-form spectra and floristic categories of the species in the study area to detect the taxonomic and phytogeographical significance of its floristic components, Quantitative analysis of vegetation structure of the communities associated with the selected species in the habitat type in terms of spatial variations in abundance using multivariate analysis (classification and ordination), Analysis of variation in the environmental factors (edaphic) to determine the soil factors controlling the abundance and distribution of the recognized communities in the study area, evaluation of the economic potentialities of the selected five spiny leaved species of family Asteraceae growing naturally in the study area by studying: phytochemical analysis, allelopathic potentiality and antioxidant activity. The total number of the recorded plant species surveyed in the present study was 124 species belonging to 105 genera and related to 32 families, These recorded species include 64 annuals (51.61%), 3 biennials (2.42%) and 57 perennials (45.97%). The floristic analysis of the study area revealed that, 80 species or about 64.52 % of the total number of recorded species were Mediterranean taxa. The vegetation analysis of the plant communities associated with the chosen species in the study area was classified by using multivariate techniques (classification and ordination). The correlations between edaphic factors and ordination axes led to the definition of the most active soil gradients which correlate with the distribution and abundance of the vegetational groups in the Deltaic Mediterranean coastal land of Egypt.The economic potentialities of the five selected species in family Asteraceae which are growing naturally in the study area have been studied. The antioxidant activity by using DPPH radical scavenging activity for an assay of the radical scavenging activity for an assay of the radical scavenging activity of the methanolic plant extracts of the selected five species.The allelopathic bioassay of Atractylis carduus, Carduus getulus, Carduus pycnocephalus, Carthamus tenuis and Echinops spinosus was investigated by studying the phytotoxic effects of their methanolic extracts on seed germination and seedling growth (shoot and root lengths) of nuisance Echinochloa crus-galli.