Study on Ethnobotany and the Effect of Ecological Factor on the Yield of Essential Oil of Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam. (Case Study: Yazd Province)

Abstract

Study on relationships between a species with its surrounding biotic and abiotic environment provides valuable information in terms of optimum choice for utilization, propagation, breeding and domestication. In other words, ecological study of behavior as essential elements of their ecosystems and habitat characteristics in order to find appropriate solutions to maintain, revise and revitalize this important part of the renewable natural resources. This study was done to discover the correlation of the essential oil yield of <em>Ziziphora clinopodioides</em> Lam. with some environmental factors. The other goal was the ethnobotanical study of the species in different habitats where the plan is growing. The studied areas are located in five natural habitats of Yazd province, Iran. Soil results showed that this species is distributed in rangelands with 7.5-8 pH, 0.633-1.47 EC ds/m. According to 10-year statistics, the average rate of rainfall and annual temperature in these habitats were 175.9-308.7 millimeters and 12.2-17.1 centigrade, respectively. The essential oil showed significant relationship with EC and pH. This relationship was negative but both of them showed significant variance. In other words, the essential oils will increase if EC decrease in a same situation. Investigation on soil texture discovered the ability of the plant to grow in different soil texture. The soil textures in different habitats were silt-loam, sandy-loam, and loamy-sand.