Article

Most ofprevious plant collecting and floristic studies were carried out by foreigners. The resulting collections including type specimens are housed in herbaria abroad. Moreover, they are in many instances difficult to use by researchers on the Moroccan flora.During the last two decades active plant collecting expeditions have taken piace in the- major regions of Morocco, leaded by IAV in conjunction with other national and foreign institutions.The creation of a Botanic Garden (BG) at IAV has stimulated further dry and living collections for ex-situ conservation of rare and endangered plants that are of actual or potential economie value or of interest from medicinal or nutritional aspects. These joined efforts have resulted in the collec- . tion of thousands of herbarium specimens and over 700 living plants for the Botanic Garden. Thus, the IAV herbarium has joined lndex Herbariorum community and the BG has become a model for ex-situ conservation of endangered plants in North Africa and the Arab world. lt is also meant to play a leading role in the country in the field of environmental education through its newly built Environmental Education Centre