Five records of new and rare alien species to the flora of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Summary . The article presents new records for five alien species previously unknown from the flora of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or very rare in the country – Chenopodium ficifolium (Chenopodiaceae/Amaranthaceae s. l.), Acalypha indica , Euphorbia maculata (Euphorbiaceae), Gamochaeta pensylvanica ( Gnaphalium pensylvanicum ), and Verbesina encelioides (Asteraceae). Some of them have been recorded for the first time from the emirate Fujairah in north-eastern part of the UAE. Euphorbia maculata , which is rare in the country, was found only in “Salman Nursery” at Masafi town and in an irrigated garden near village Bithna, Chenopodium ficifolium was found in environs of Al Siji, in Wadi Siji on the road-dam and in “Al Phoenician Nursery” at Al Dibba town, Acalypha indica L. grows as weed in a plant market on the roadside in Al Bidya and in “The Green Nursery Sales Dibba” at Al Dibba town, they are new for the flora of Fujairah and UAE at all. Gamochaeta pensylvanica was found in a small quantity in a plant market and plant nursery in the Masafi friday market, and Verbesina encelioides – was found naturalized in Khor-Fakkan (Emirate of Sharjah) – both are very rare in the UAE.

The alien plant status was determined by the following criteria (Egorov et al., 2016;Baranova et al., 2018): 1) an indication in the literature that the species has been introduced into the study area or a larger region encompassing the study area; 2) the species occurred only or mainly in ruderal and/or weedy habitats; 3) the species occurred in isolation from its main natural geographic range.The status of the alien species was determined to be casual, naturalized, or invasive, using the approach developed by Pyšek et al. (2004) and which is quite widely used in Western Europe (Galasso et al., 2018).However, because our observations were made only once, the alien species status that we give might not be correct.
Specimens were deposited in the following herbaria (acronyms according to Thiers, 2021): Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (LE), and Wadi Wurraya National Park (FSH, not acronym yet).
A Garmin GPS 72H was used for the geographic coordinates of the collecting sites.The identification was performed with different relevant floras.The location of the plants was determined using a GPS receiver or Google Maps.All coordinates use the WGS84 standard.Turczaninowia 27, 1: 5-19 (2024) in and between plastic pots with cultivated plants.15 V 2020.[Fl.]V. V. Byalt, M. V. Korshunov. No. 2861" (LE 01229209).-Therophyte / Annual.Eurasian-North African.Naturalized.Xenophyte, colonophyte, euneophyte.Distributed by seeds; autochorous, anthropochorous.Weed.Alien species in Fujairah and the UAE.
The distribution range of this species is from Europe to Korea and N. Indo-China but originally native to the Irano-Turanian floristic region (Nobis et al., 2018).It is an archaeophyte weed in Europe and can now be found in temperate crop-growing regions in most of the world (Harrap, 2014).Chenopodium ficifolium is an annual and grows primarily in the temperate biomes (POWO, 2023), and recorded as introduced in 13 countries of the World, including Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula (Chenopodium ficifolium, 2023); reported as invasive in Japan (Ikeda et al., 2021), the Republic of Korea (Foxcroft et al., 2020), Great Britain (Roy et al., 2020), etc.A new alien (adventives) species for Fujairah and the UAE as a whole.For the Arabian Peninsula, it was recorded for Saudi Arabia (Boulos, 1996;Checklist of Flora..., 2011-2023) but not for other countries (Cornes C., Cornes M., 1989;Ghazanfar, 1992;Miller, Cope, 1996;Wood, 1997;Jongbloed et al., 2000Jongbloed et al., , 2003;;Ghazanfar, 2007;Norton et al., 2009;Al-Khulaidi, 2013;Pahlevani, 2017;etc.).In Fujairah it has been found on a bank of Siji pond and in a plant nursery "Al Qalamoon Nursery" in village Al Bidya, on roadside in irrigated spots in village Bithna and "Al Phoenician Nursery" in Dibba town, but it is represented there in a large number of individuals, apparently.
The native range of this species is from Eritrea to S. Africa, Arabian Peninsula to Tropical and Subtropical Asia, including some Arabian countries (Oman, Saudi Arabia).It is an annual and grows primarily in the wet tropical biomes (Govaerts, 1995;Govaerts et al., 2000;Balakrishnan, Chakrabarty, 2007;POWO, 2023), and recorded as introduced in 23 countries of the World (Acalypha indica, 2023); it has been reported as invasive in Mexico (González Martínez et al., 2020), Madagascar (Randrianizahana et al., 2020), Seychelles (Friedmann, 2014;Pagard, 2020), etc.This plant is held in high esteem in traditional Tamil Siddha medicine as it is believed to rejuvenate the body.The plant has also been eaten as a vegetable in Africa and India but requires care when eating it since it contains several alkaloids as well as hydrocyanic acid (Schmelzer, Gurib-Fakim, 2008).
It has been found in some plant nurseries and plant market, such as "Al Qalamoon Nursery" in Al Bidya, "The Green Nursery Sales Dibba" in Dibba, "Bidya plant market", but it is represented there in a large number of individuals, apparently, is a potentially invasive species.
It differs from closely related species, that are common in South Asia in the following features as indicated in Table 2. North American.Propagated by seeds, autochorous, ballistochorous, anthropochore.Weed.New alien species in Fujairah and UAE (Fig. 4).
The native range of this species is from S. E. Canada to Belize, Cuba, Bahamas.It is an annual and grows primarily in the temperate biomes.It is used as a poison and in traditional medicine (POWO, 2023).Also it is recorded as introduced in 44 countries of the World (Euphorbia maculata, 2023) and it has become a common invasive species throughout the World, including Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand (Pagard et al., 2020;Weber et al., 2020;Ikeda et al., 2021;Gollasch, 2022;Randall et al., 2022).
For the Arabian Peninsula, it was reported only for Kuwait on site GBIF (Euphorbia maculata, 2022) -observed in Kuwait by Mohammad Marafi (Creative Commons.URL: http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).A new alien species for the Emirate of Fujairah and the UAE as a whole.
It was found as a weed in a small number of individuals on sandy pathside on the territory of the private plant nursery in the environs of town Masafi and as weed in irrigation pit under cultivated tree Tamarindus indicus L. (Fabaceae s. l.) near garden on wadi bank in village Bithna.
Gamochaeta pensylvanica was found earlier in the UAE at two different areas in Dubai Emirate.In Deira about 20 plants on a grass strip along a road (25°15'949''N, 055°18'630''E) were observed, while only a single plant was recorded in a lawn at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (25°05'686''N, 055°23'397''E) (Shahid, 2014).We managed to find this plant among several specimens on the territory of the Salman nursery in the environs of Masafi town in Fujairah.New alien species in the Fujairah Emirate and rare in the UAE (Shahid, 2014).
The native range of this species is USA to Mexico, Caribbean, Ecuador to the southern part of South America (Pruski et al., 2018;Roskov et al., 2018;Knapp, Naczi, 2021).It is an annual and grows primarily in the temperate biome.It is used as a poison, a medicine and invertebrate food (Diazgranados et al., 2020;POWO, 2023).
Verbesina encelioides was found earlier in the UAE at two places along the roadside in Ras al-Khaimah during a botanical expedition.Both places are located in Umm Urge area of the emirate.At one location (25°30'455''N, 055°59'328''E), there were about 70 plants, while the second place (25°30'572''N, 055°39'405''E) had 8 of them (Shahid, 2014).We have found a big ruderal population of this species in Khor-Fakkan town (Sharjah).Hundreds flowering and fruiting plants have grown behind a border of shrubs in the wasteland on roadside.Rare alien species in the UAE (Shahid, 2014) and new to Sharjah emirate.

Conclusions
All recorded species -Chenopodium ficifolium, Acalypha indica, Euphorbia maculata, Gamochaeta pensylvanica and Verbesina encelioides are alien to the UAE, and currently their populations are small.They are new records to the flora of Fujairah Emirate or the UAE at whole.
The important reason for registration of the new findings of alien species is their further monitoring.In fact, it is not very surprising that additional new species, particularly inconspicuous 'weed' species, may arrive along with intended imports of plants, animals, foodstuffs, etc. and may prosper at least temporarily in urban, suburban, horticultural or other artificial environments.Their advent should be presented as neither more nor less than what it is: a disruption of the long-term natural order, with consequences that should neither be cheered, nor feared a priori, but that should probably be regarded with suspicion in the first instance as some of its can be invasive in future to the flora of the United Arab Emirates this study.We would also like to express our special thanks to Dr. D. V. Geltman from the Komarov Botanical Institute of RAS in St. Petersburg (Russia) for his help in identifying Euphorbia and Acalypha species, and Dr. A. P. Sukhorukov from the Moscow state university (Moscow, Russia) for his help in identifying Chenopodium species.

Fig. 3 .
Fig. 3. Herbarium specimen of Acalypha indica L. collected in Al Qalamoon Nursery in the village of Al Bidiya in the Fujairah Emirate kept in LE (LE01229231, scan by D. Melnikov).

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. Herbarium specimen of Euphorbia maculata L. collected in Salman Nursery in environs of Masafi town kept in LE (LE01229245, scan by D. Melnikov).
. The article constitutes a contribution toward completion of the State Assignment to the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, within the BIN RAS project "Vascular plants of Eurasia: taxonomy, floristic research, plant resources", No. AAAA-A 19-119031290052-1.The authors also express their gratitude to His Excellency Salem Al Zahmi (Director of His Highness Crown-Prince Office), Dr. Fouad Lamghari Ridouane, Director of Research and Innovation of Fujairah Research Centre and to Dr. Vladimir M. Korshunov (General Zoologist of Wadi Wurayah National Park and Reserve Department, Government of Fujairah) for their assistance in conducting field work and for their great contribution to the implementation of 176 V. V. Byalt, M. V. Korshunov.Alien species new Byalt V. V., Korshunov M. V. Five records of new and rare alien species to the flora of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Table 2
Comparative features of closely related species to Acalypha indica L.

Table 3
Comparative features of closely related species to Euphorbia maculata L.