الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The distribution and the survival of plants in their natural habitats in fact, are due to the influences of the environmental factors prevailing in such habitats. Climatic factors are of great importance in determining the distribution of plants. Moreover, the genetic makeup of these plants plays an important role in their distribution as well as their survival. The plant performance/growth is the sum of their genetic makeup, environment and the interaction between these two. Using the natural variation that present within and between plants growing in nature is an interesting source to study their adaptation to specific environments as well as, their genetics. It is expected that the genetic variation for traits in nature reflects their adaptation to specific environments. The present study deals with investigating the effect of the different natural habitats (environments) on growth-related traits (the morphological, the anatomical, the flowering-related traits, physiological and metabolic traits), find wild leguminous weed(s) that could be used as an alternative fodder to solve the problem of increasing grazing and shortage of forage plants in Egypt, through evaluating of their nutritional value and studying the genetic profile of some of them. The impact of the environmental factors prevailing in the habitats where the studied plants collected was studied. The following are the output of the work done in this dissertation. Climatic Factors: 1- The minimum temperature was 9.5 ◦C at Alex location, while the maximum temperature reached up to 36.2 ◦C at Cairo location. While, the dominant temperature for all the locations was 27.5◦C. 2- The minimum percentage of relative humidity was 24.6 % at Cairo location and the maximum percentage was up to 89.3% at Mersa Matrouh location, where the dominant percentage for all locations was 70.5 %. 3- The climatic factors like temperature and relative humidity might had an effect on the growth-related traits of the studied plants. Edaphic Factors, Morphological and Anatomical growth-related traits: 1- Several environmental factors are significantly affect plant growth. Among these factors are soil salinity, mineral composition of the soil and texture. 2- The results of the growth-related traits (Morphological) for Astragalus boeticus L. indicated that the plant grow well in sandy and slightly alkaline to neutral soil like Ras El-Hekma location. 3- The results of the growth-related traits for Astragalus hamosus L. indicating that the plant preferred slightly alkaline and sandy loam soils like El Goura location. 4- The results of the growth-related traits for Melilotus indicus ( L.) All. indicated that the plant preferred sandy loam and neutral soil, also it can grow and tolerate saline soil like New Damietta location. 5- The results of growth traits for Trigonella stellata Foressk., Vicia monantha Retz. and Vicia sativa L. indicated that these plants preferred sandy and neutral soil like (Cairo – Isamillia road and 10km from Rafah), (15km Western Matrouh) and (Halazeen) locations, respectively. 6- The results for the growth-related traits (Anatomical features) indicated that the majority of the plants that were investigated in this study grew in arid to semiarid conditions, therefore facing stressful condition. For the stem anatomy; the studied plants were characterized by the presence of large amount of parenchymatous tissue which found in the cortex and pith which is storage tissue and has narrow air spaces between cells and this may be due to that some locations are more saline than others. 7- All plant tissues are characterized by the presence of dense chloroplasts associated with spaces in some locations, which meant that the stem is provided with a good photosynthetic tissue that supports the main photosynthetic organ which is the leaf. 8- The plant tissues are characterized by large xylem vessels length and width and these tissues were collected from saline locations. 9- Stems of Vicia sativa L. are characterized by the presence of the brown tanniniferrous cells in the epidermal cells which may be of a protective value. 10- The anatomy of leaves for some tissues are characterized by reduction in the width of epidermis, ratio of palisade tissue and the size of vascular bundles than other locations and this may be due to high ratio of saline in soil. 11- The anatomy of leaves of Vicia monantha Retz. and Vicia sativa L. is characterized by the presence of tanniniferrous cells in the upper and lower epidermal cells. Mineral Composition and Nutritional Value for Plant Tissues: For the minerals and nutritional values for the studied plants, it is clear that the chemical composition of plants is often used as an index of their quality and it varies between species. 1- Astragalus boeticus L. and Astragalus hamosus L., despite of being good forage, but they contain crude protein and digestible crude protein lower than that of Trifolium alexandrinum L. and Medicago sativa. The results of plant tissues analysis of Astragalus boeticus L. is better than that obtained for Astragalus hamosus L. 2- Some results of analysis of Melilotus indicus (L.) All. are approximately more than that of Trifolium alexandrinum L. as the results for crude fibers, carbohydrates, crude fats and ash and there are some results similar to that of Medicago sativa as crude protein, total digestible nitrogen and digestible crude protein. 3- Some results of analysis of the tissues of Trigonella stellata Forssk. as crude protein, digestible dry matter and relative feed value are similar to that obtained from Medicago satia, but the results of tissue analysis for Melilotus indicus (L.) All. were better than that of Astragalus boeticus L., Astragalus hamosus L. and Trigonella stellata Forssk. 4- Vicia monantha Retz. considered a good forage and most of the results of the analysis for its tissues were approximately similar to that obtained for Medicago sativa, but the results of tissue analysis for Melilotus indicus (L.) All. are better than that of Vicia monantha Retz. 5- Vicia sativa L. considered a good forage and most of the results of the analysis for its tissues were approximately similar to that obtained for Medicago sativa and most of its analysis results are approximately similar to that of Melilotus indicus (L.) All. 6- In the present study Astragalus boeticus L. and Astragalus hamosus L. showed the greatest nutritive value followed by Melilotus indicus (L.) All., Trigonella stellata Foressk., Vicia monantha Retz. and Vicia sativa L. 7- Antinutrional factors as tannins are found in very small percentage in all studied plants. Chemical Composition and Nutritional Value for Seeds: The seeds of the studied plants were analyzed to evaluate its nutritional values and the results indicating that Vicia monantha Retz. and Vicia sativa L. seeds contain high percentages of crude protein, crude fibers, acid detergent fibers, neutral detergent fibers, carbohydrates, total digestible nitrogen, growth energy, digestible crude protein, dry matter intake, digestible dry matter and relative feed value. Also the seeds of Melilotus indicus (L.) All. containing high percentage of crude protein, crude fibers, acid detergent fibers, neutral detergent fibers, growth energy, digestible crude protein and dry matter intake. Amino Acids for Plant Tissues and Seeds: 1- The plant tissues and seeds of the studied plants were analyzed for their amino acids to evaluate its economic importance. Astragalus hamosus L., Vicia monantha Retz. and Vicia sativa L. plant tissues containing high percentage of methionine amino acid, which is the only sulphur containing amino acid, so it plays an important role in the synthesis of other proteins, it has a fat dissolving effect and reduces the depositing fat in liver. It is an important cartilage-forming substance. It strengthens the nails and works to combat hair loss. 2- Trigonella stellata Forssk. plant tissues containing high percentage of aspartic, methionine and glutamic amino acids. Glutamic amino acid regulates the acid-base balance and makes the skin firm, it strengthens the immune system and is essential for hair growth and it can combat fat storage. 3- The seeds of the studied plants containing high percentage of glutamic and arginie amino acids. Arginine is involved in many metabolic processes and high blood pressure, it improves the circulation, strengthens the immune system and accelerates the rate of the healing of wounds. Molecular Studies: 1- The present study used RAPD primers to reveal both the genetic similarity and variations among the genotypes of Vicia monntha and Vicia sativa as a result to the environmental variation. 2- The UPGMA dendograms generated for some of the used markers resulted in a discrete clustering of the genotypes. These markers clustered the species of Vicia monantha collected from different locations together and the species of Vicia sativa collected from different locations together This classification agreed with the taxonomic relationships and not reflect the variations resulted from the environmental variations and effects. 3- While the dendograms resulted from the rest markers indicated that there was no cluster pattern could show the genetic profile which reflect the ecological variations that present in these habitats.