Vascular plants of the Valleys of Hell, Danniye-Akkar, Lebanon, 2019

Mobilizing plant species occurrences and sampling-event data from Northern Lebanon The dataset was created during the project "Distribution and Red List Assessment of the restricted range endemic Jacobaea mouterdei" funded by Mohammed Bin Zayed Conservation Fund (project number 180519099:https://www.speciesconservation.org/case-studies-projects/mouterdes-ragwort/19099). The botanical data on vascular plants were collected during the years 2018 and 2019 in the regions of Akkar and Danniye in the North of Lebanon with focus on Jacobaea mouterdei, range-restricted species endemic to these regions. Most of the fieldwork was carried out in the Valleys of Hell (Wadi Jhannam). The mountain areas of Akkar and Danniye shelter among the most preserved natural habitats in the country, but also the less studied. The mobilization of data with GBIF addresses this significant gap in biological data. Moreover, recent human activities and projects have been seriously threatening natural habitats and there is an urge to act for the conservation of these areas, the first step being to know exactly what species are present there. This first dataset allowed the collection of previously unseen observations for the regions of Akkar and Danniye. The specific richness and rate of endemism were beyond expectations in the Valleys of Hell. The data collected about the occurrence of Jacobaea mouterdei were used to map the distribution of the species. However an important area remains unexplored and the exploration continues. Thanks to the financial support of GBIF, the data collected during this project were entered of spreadsheet, properly cleaned, controlled and published online to be here freely available to all on this website.