Mauritania

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania (IRM) is a vast country situated where the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa converge. With an area of 1,030,700 km2, it is located within the latitudes from 15 to 27 degrees North and longitudes from 5 to 17 degrees West (Schlüter 2008). It shares borders with Senegal to the south, Mali to the southeast, Algeria to the northeast, and Morocco to the north. The coastline along the Atlantic Ocean to the west measures 700 km. Due to Mauritania’s geographical position, its desert climate, and the difficult conditions for plant development, its flora is rather poor in the number of species (Yebouk et al. 2020). However, located between the tropical and Mediterranean floristic regions, it is of great interest as it is a magnificent example of a very arid tropical environment, classified in the Sahara and Sahel phytogeographic regions (northern and southern territories, respectively; Sayre et al. 2013). In terms of its landscape, 80% of the country is desert, of which no more than 0.2% is arable land (Soulé 2011).