Horsh Ehden


Horsh Ehden is a nature reserve located in Northern Lebanon. It contains a forest of the cedar of Lebanon, making it a part of the country's cultural and natural heritage. It is located on the northwestern slopes of Mount Lebanon, the nature reserve experiences high precipitation and is home to numerous rare and endemic plants. Stands of cedars also include a mixed forest of juniper, fir, and the country's last protected community of wild apple trees. In the forest are endangered eastern imperial eagles or Bonelli's eagles, gray wolves, wildcats, golden jackals, and red foxes. Valleys and gorges also have wild orchids, salamanders, mushrooms, and other flora and fauna.

Natural history

Biodiversity

Over 1,058 plant species have been identified in the reserve, accounting for nearly 40% of all native plant species in Lebanon, though the reserve represents less than 0.1% of the total area of Lebanon. The forests form an assemblage of conifers, deciduous, and evergreen broadleaf trees in an isolated climatic phytochorion with a varied topography.

Flora

1,020 species of native plants and 39 species of native trees have been identified. Seventy species use "Lebanon" in their names, such as Cedrus libani, Salix libanii, and Berberis libanotica. Twenty-two other species carry names significant to Lebanon, such as Dianthus karami, and Astragalus ehdenensis. A total of 212 species are rare and another 126 are considered threatened; 115 are endemic to Lebanon, and ten are endemic to Horsh Ehden. Seventy-eight species are recognized as medicinal plants. The reserve is also considered the southernmost limit to Cilician fir (Abies cilicica).

Plant communities

The forest plant communities of highest conservation importance are:
Horsh Ehden is the only protected area in Lebanon that contains a community of the wild apple of Lebanon.

Fauna

Mammals

More than 27 species of mammals have been sighted in the reserve, representing a third of Lebanese mammals. Insectivores, carnivores, rodents, lagomorpha, chiroptera, and artiodactyls have all been identified in the reserve.
13 species are globally threatened, one species is locally threatened and highly endangered, and one species is endemic to the reserve.
Species identified in the reserve include Cape hare, wood mouse, Eurasian badger, southern white-breasted hedgehog, Indian porcupine, Caucasian squirrel, striped hyena, least weasel, wildcat, gray wolf, and marbled polecat.

Birds

The reserve has different birds habitats. Four of the identified bird species are globally threatened, five are regionally vulnerable, eighteen face unfavorable conditions in Europe, and fifty-seven are rare in Lebanon.
Species include eastern imperial eagle, Bonelli's eagle , blue tit, corn crake, Levant sparrowhawk, saker falcon, white pelican, black stork, Egyptian vulture, European bee-eater, sand martin, white stork, common wood-pigeon, great spotted cuckoo, barn owl, and the Syrian woodpecker.

Amphibians and reptiles

There are four species of amphibians and nineteen species of reptiles. One species is globally threatened, one subspecies is unique, and nineteen species are threatened in Lebanon.
Species include Lebanon viper, Palestinian viper, green whip snake, bridled mabuya, Schreiber's fringe-fingered lizard, desert black snake, common toad.