Leading plant taxonomist in Jordan Al-Eisawi (1985) has recognized thirteen vegetation types in Jordan. Recent work by Albert, et al. (2003) indicated up to 19 recognizable types. Some types are strictly confined to one of the bioclimatic regions. For example, forest climax occurs executively within the Mediterranean region, while Steppe vegetation is  confined  to  the  Irano-Turanian  region.  Tropical and  Acacia woodlands occur at the sub-tropical region. Hammad vegetation occurs predominantly at the Saharo-arabian region.

Plant species composition, habitat description and vegetation community were analyzed in various studies.  The total number of plant species is estimated to be between 2300 and 2500, of which 2000 are vascular plants. New species are added to the list of plant species almost yearly as new to Jordan and even new to science. Plant diversity in Jordan has declined dramatically and some have become extinct totally from the wild. Main reasons leading to this are habitat encroachment by urban and agricultural development, deforestation, and deterioration of rangelands by over-grazing and soil erosion, illegal collection, and depletion of the major water resources.

The flora of Jordan is facing a continuous deterioration because of one or several of the following factors:

1.           Cultivation: replacing natural vegetation cover with cultivated crops utilizing modern agriculture machinery.

2.           Grazing: the carrying capacity of many of the vegetated areas is way below the actual number of grazing animals mainly goats and sheep. In several areas, illegal grazing as well as overgrazing led to serious vegetation destruction, Goat grazing can seriously reduce plant growth and cause high seedling mortality.

3.           Tree harvesting: the forested areas of Badia are particularly stricken by tree harvesting for firewood and charcoal production. An estimated 1000 trees are lost annually most of which are old trees, which have a very significant contribution to genetic diversity. The two most commonly harvested trees are Cupressus and Pistacia.

4.           Urbanization: the spread of land usage for building houses, highways and roads as well as encroachment of people on public and state owned land gradually led to a decrease in forested areas. Jordan is facing a population boom which leads to an increasing demand for food and housing areas. Many cities, towns or villages have extended over their normal range and many agricultural zones are being shifted to residential zones.

5.           Off-road driving: trampling of vegetation in transitional and fragile ecosystems by off-road vehicles is leading to destruction of vegetation cover and soil erosion.

6.           Plant collecting: several plant species are threatened by unregulated collecting. These include medicinal and ornamental plant species of the genus Tulipa, Narcissus, Lupinus and Cyclamen. In Jordan, hundreds of specimens are illegally smuggled yearly in the form of either living or dry herbarium specimens. Many rare, endemic or new species to the flora of Jordan have been collected and taken to herbaria of various nations, especially European countries, without leaving duplicate specimens in Jordan or giving information about the place of their deposition or even a list of their names, numbers and locations.

7.           Natural disasters:  Water stress, heavy rain, snow and flash flood rains are among the environmental factors that can lead to the destruction of plant species and to serious changes in the plant communities.

8.           Pests and pathogens: the effect of these biological factors is insignificant compared to other factors, as no epidemics were reported in Jordan for the past 50 years.

9.           Pollution: this factor is one with the least scientifically documented.. In certain areas, for example near the Cement factories or the refinery in the Al-Hashemiah area, where we have permanent source of pollution, vegetation monitoring is of high priority. Other forms of pollution can exist and information needs to be gathered about them.