Floristic Diversity and Evaluation of the Potential of Spontaneous Medicinal Plants in the Bigoudine Watershed (Moroccan Western High Atlas)

Abstract

The Bigoudine watershed (Western High Atlas) enjoys a floristic originality and a large number of plant species of therapeutic and aromatic interest widely used by the local population in traditional medicine. This region is subject to very difficult geographical conditions and is occupied by a poor population with a fairly high rate of illiteracy. Ethnobotanical surveys and floristic and phytoecological surveys carried out in two periods, the first in 2003–2004 and the second in 2016–2018, made it possible to identify the spontaneous medicinal flora and assess the potential of medicinal and aromatic plants in the region. The assessment of the biomass potential is carried out on three medicinal species among the most widely used plants in the area, Thymus pallidus Coss. ex Batt, Lavandula dentata L., and Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl. The results obtained made it possible to catalog 57 spontaneous medicinal species divided into 44 genera and 26 families, the most dominant of which are Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, Anacardiaceae, Asparagaceae, Cistaceae, Cupressaceae, Fabaceae, and Oleaceae. The location of these species has been identified, and the plant formations concerned have been delimited. The estimated biomass potential of Thymus pallidus Coss. ex Batt, Lavandula dentata L., and Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl. varies according to species, types of plant formations, their structures, and their biological states. This spontaneous medicinal floristic wealth, within the region studied, is exposed to severe socioeconomic conditions, which are the main causes of non-respectful exploitation of natural resources threatening their balance and sustainable regeneration. Medicinal and aromatic plants in the Bigoudine watershed region require adapted measures allowing the rational development of certain potentially exploitable plants and the conservation of heavily used and threatened species.