Abstract
Both today and for centuries, the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) stands as the keystone crop in the oasis of al-‘Ulā deeply embedded in the region’s agricultural heritage and identity. Its historical significance spans millennia, and it has played a vital role in the local economy, extending beyond mere sustenance as a dietary staple until recent decades. As tourism and economic development are still unfolding and shaping the region, their influence on urbanization and agricultural practices will inevitably impact the cultivation and role of date palms. In this context, the agrobiodiversity of the oasis stands out as a critical but often underappreciated resource. Unveiling and scientifically documenting this diversity is essential to fully understand a heritage that reflects centuries of meticulous selection and labor by the oasis’s farming communities.Achieving a sustainable transformation of al-‘Ulā requires a thorough assessment of the agrobiodiversity embedded within its native date palm population. The diversity of crops, particularly the rich variety of date palms within the oasis agroecosystem, is continually shaped over centuries by the expertise and knowledge of the local communities. Our research initiative, the “Ethnographic, Genetic, and Morphometric Analyses of Date Palm Agrobiodiversity in al-‘Ulā Oasis” (commonly referred to as al-‘Ulā DPA project), adopts an interdisciplinary approach that integrates biological and social dimensions within a unified framework. This heuristic interplay between ethnobotanical and biological perspectives aims to reveal the complex, interwoven factors that shape date palm agrobiodiversity in the oasis of al-‘Ulā, Saudi Arabia. The project al-‘Ulā DPA encompasses two main objectives:-Objective 1: Evaluating the present agrobiodiversity of date palms in al-‘Ulā and its region, for a full understanding of the structure and the diversity,-Objective 2: Reconstructing the origins and evolutionary history of al-‘Ulā date palms to establish a clear picture of the history of date palms in the region and beyond.This document provides an overview of our progress during the fifth year of the project (October 2023-September 2024).