PJB-2018-1790
First report on the flora of dams and water breakers in an arid desert of the United Arab Emirates
Tamer Mahmoud, Hatem A. Shabana and Sanjay Gairola
Abstract
This paper provides the first comprehensive checklist of vascular plant flora of dams and water breakers in hyper-arid desert habitats of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Surveys in 66 dams and water breakers were conducted to explore flora of these areas. A total of 248 plant species belonging 170 genera distributed in 50 families were recorded. Among these, two regionally endemic species Pulicaria edmondsonii and Schweinfurthia imbricata, in addition to 34 rare species, were recorded from the study area. The chorological analysis showed that the floristic composition is dominated by Saharo-Arabian elements, with 149 species. The life form spectrum indicated that therophytes were the most represented (46%) and Helophytes was the least represented life form group. Analysis of plant growth form shows that the occurrence of annual plants was high, followed by the perennials.
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