Plants of the UAE desert and when they flower

Most UAE plants live in the mountains, not on the dunes

More than half of the UAE's native plants grow in its mountain regions, which cover less than 5% of the country. That share comes from Feulner (2023), as cited by Sakkir and colleagues in a 2025 survey of Wadi Shuwaib published in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

The same paper gives the national total: 598 native plant species. It takes the figure from Allen and colleagues (2021), the authors of the UAE National Red List of Vascular Plants. UAE Flora, the online plant database of the Emirates, lists 622 native and 143 introduced plants in its 2023 update.

No plant is endemic to the UAE alone. Seven species are endemic to the mountains of the UAE and northern Oman, a finding from Feulner (2016) cited in the same 2025 paper.

On the sand desert itself, the plants include trees such as the deep-rooted ghaf and dune shrubs such as markh and abal. Many annuals, such as Senecio glaucus and Arnebia hispidissima, flower only after good rain. Four habitat terms to know:

• Sand dunes and sand plains: loose sand, from high dune ridges to flat sheets.
• Gravel plains: flat ground of stones and coarse grit.
• Wadis: valleys and stream beds shaped by running water.
• Sabkha: salt flat.

How desert plants survive in the UAE differs from one plant to the next. UAE Flora credits the ghaf with tolerating salt up to half seawater salinity, and markh can live on water already in the soil for four years without more rain.

Six more trees and large shrubs, wild and planted

Six more trees and large shrubs are worth knowing, and not all of them grow wild. Samr and sidr are trees of the gravel plains and wadis, and UAE Flora lists both as native. Arak is widely cultivated, and athel is planted along roads and near brackish water. The date palm is cultivated almost everywhere. Wild ghada, by UAE Flora's record, grows only in Abu Dhabi emirate. Heights here are UAE Flora's unless the Red List is named.

• Samr (Acacia tortilis, السمر). An umbrella-shaped native tree, 2 to 6 metres tall, of gravel plains and foothills, with white to pale-yellow flower heads in spring and pods twisted into one to three coils. Nationally it is Least Concern. The Red List flags grazing as a possible threat that still needs confirming.
• Sidr (Ziziphus spina-christi, السدر). A tree of gravel plains and wadi beds, also cultivated on the alluvial plains. It stands 2 to 8 metres tall, or up to 12 in the Red List, which notes that its origin needs confirming. It flowers twice a year, in spring and autumn. The fruit, orange-yellow to brown, measures 1 to 2 centimetres. Nationally it is Least Concern.
• Arak, the toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica, أراك). "Native in few places but widely cultivated" is how UAE Flora puts it, while the Red List questions its origin and notes that wild and planted stands are hard to tell apart. Sandy ground suits it, and it flowers in spring. UAE Flora notes that its roots are made into miswak toothbrushes, and that it tolerates salt up to seawater salinity.
• Athel (Tamarix aphylla, أثل). In UAE Flora it is native but "planted along roadsides or near brackish water or sabkha in the desert". It reaches up to 10 metres in the Red List, which rates it Data Deficient because it is unclear whether wild populations occur in the UAE. Flowering splits sharply: UAE Flora gives February to March, the Red List October to February.
• Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera, النخلة). Cultivated throughout the country at all elevations. Spontaneous growth is uncommon except in neglected or abandoned groves.
• Ghada, the white saxaul (Haloxylon persicum, غضا). A large shrub or small tree of sand sheets and dunes, with sand piled into hummocks round its base. It reaches 1 to 2.5 metres, or up to 3 in the Red List. Flowering is another split: October to December in UAE Flora, February to May in the Red List. It is Near Threatened nationally, with a significant part of its range inside Al Ghada Protected Area.

The shrubs and grasses that hold the sand in place

A handful of shrubs and grasses hold UAE dunes together. Markh is common in dune stabilisation, and abal can grow on large moving dunes, where few plants manage. Sizes and months in this section are UAE Flora's unless the Red List is named.

Markh, a leafless shrub with whip-like stems

Erect and many-branched, markh (Leptadenia pyrotechnica, المرخ) grows up to 3 metres tall, with drooping stems and few leaves or none. Its fibre is used for rope. Gazelles shelter in it by day, and so, in the Red List's account, do oryx. The root system lets markh live on water already in the soil for four years without more rain, a point the same account takes from Batanouny (2001).

Abal and arta, two Calligonum shrubs of the sand

Abal (Calligonum crinitum, أبل) is "one of few plants able to grow on large mobile dunes, even in the leeward slopes", in UAE Flora's words. It stands 50 to 180 centimetres tall, with grey-white coiled stems and bristly fruit 1 to 1.5 centimetres long, and flowers from January to March in both references. The Red List adds that it was overlooked in the UAE and confused with Calligonum comosum. It is also planted along roadsides, and nationally it is Least Concern.

Its close relative arta (Calligonum comosum, الأرطا), recorded by UAE Flora in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, stands 50 to 150 centimetres tall and flowers from February to April. Calligonum polygonoides subsp. comosum is listed there as a synonym.

Arfaj, once common and now endangered

The UAE National Red List assesses arfaj (Rhanterium epapposum, عرفج) as Endangered, after a decline of more than 75% in 20 years. This dwarf shrub, up to 0.7 metres tall, grows on sand and gravel plains and on low dunes and hillsides. UAE Flora describes it as once a dominant species of the central desert and the alluvial plains, and it was locally common in the 1980s, by the Red List's record.

Overgrazing by camels and sheep has removed arfaj from many places. Flowering plants are often found only where grazing is kept out. Agricultural and urban development added to the decline. It flowers from April to June where it survives.

Thenda sedge and the two look-alike desert grasses

Thenda sedge (Cyperus conglomeratus, ثنده) is "very common in the UAE", says UAE Flora, and grows 30 to 70 centimetres tall. Its habitat in the Red List is low dunes and the lower slopes of megadunes, and it quickly colonises disturbed ground.

Two perennial grasses look alike out of flower. Thamam (Panicum turgidum, ثمام) and Pennisetum divisum carry the same Arabic name in UAE Flora, and the database gives a field test: peel back the leaf sheath and look at the point where the branching stem inserts. In Panicum turgidum it is glossy and swollen, with short hairs visible only under a lens. In Pennisetum divisum it is thin and hairless. The Red List files Pennisetum divisum under Cenchrus divisus, and both grasses appear in the flowering months table below.

Plants that cope with salt

Halophytes, the plants that tolerate salt, grow "along the coast, on offshore islands and in arid inland areas", in the words of the 2024 Year of Sustainability planting guide. UAE Flora credits both ghaf and Calligonum with tolerating salt up to half seawater salinity.

String of beads (Halopeplis perfoliata, خرز) is a succulent up to 40 centimetres tall of sand sheets and tidal salt marshes, flowering from July to December in both references. Harm (Zygophyllum qatarense, هرم; the Red List name is Tetraena qatarensis) is a succulent dwarf shrub of coastal sands and of sandy and gravelly plains. It flowers from September to March, and the Red List gives no months.

Wildflowers after winter rain, and what makes a good year

The desert flowers in the UAE that make the news are annuals that come up after good winter rain. A good year depends on that rain. The Red List entries for Senecio and Neurada also tie their growth to rain.

In a three-year study on one gravel plain in the eastern UAE, annuals flowered four to eight weeks after rain fell. That study, by Sakkir and colleagues in the Journal of Arid Land (2015), found a peak growing season from November to March. Flowering came mainly in November and December, and in February and March when rain allowed. Trees and shrubs flowered four to six weeks after rain. The timings hold for that one gravel plain.

In a wet year the dunes can change colour. A Gulf News report from March 2020 described Senecio glaucus covering dunes in yellow and Eremobium aegyptiacum spreading white flowers over the flatter dune bases, with Tribulus adding more yellow among the dunes. Dr Reza Khan, a Dubai wildlife specialist quoted in the report, expected most of that year's flowers to last until the end of March. The report named Arnebia hispidissima and Senecio glaucus among the dormant plants that come out only after good rain.

The plants to look for after rain:

• Senecio glaucus (زملوق), an annual with yellow to orange flowers, the one that turned the dunes yellow in 2020. It stands 10 to 25 centimetres tall in UAE Flora and up to 35 in the Red List, which describes it flowering and setting seed quickly after rain, then dying back.
• Eremobium aegyptiacum (غبيشه), an annual with white to pink or mauve petals. UAE Flora calls it "one of a few annuals that range into the northern part of the Empty Quarter".
• Tribulus (زهر), with five lemon-yellow petals about 1 centimetre long. UAE Flora lists it as Tribulus omanense. The Red List treats UAE records under Tribulus arabicus, rates that species Least Concern nationally, and gives a much longer flowering season.
• Neurada procumbens (سعدانه), another annual. Citing Perry (2008), the Red List notes that winter rain can decide whether its seeds germinate at all.

The months for all four are in the flowering months table below. Weather and trip timing by month sit in the guide to the best time of year for a desert safari.

The desert hyacinth, a root parasite with a yellowish spike

The desert hyacinth (Cistanche tubulosa, ذانون) is a parasite. A thin root runs several metres from its tuber to a host plant, usually one in the Chenopodiaceae or Zygophyllaceae families, according to UAE Flora. Its fleshy spike stands 20 to 60 centimetres tall, yellowish with purplish lobes, and appears from January to March. The Red List names the same host families and places the plant on the coast and on inland saline sand plains. One host is Cornulaca monacantha, a salt-tolerant dwarf shrub of coastal sand sheets, according to its Red List page. UAE Flora, which calls it djouri, records the shrub in Dubai.

Four poisonous plants to leave alone

Sodom's apple (Calotropis procera, عشار) is one plant to keep your hands off: UAE Flora warns that its milky latex is a deadly poison that can cause blindness.

• Sodom's apple (Calotropis procera). A shrub 1 to 3 metres tall in UAE Flora, or 2.5 to 4 metres and up to 6 metres in the Red List. The Red List notes that its native status is disputed.
• Rhazya stricta (حرمل). Poisonous and not grazed, so it dominates heavily grazed ground. The Red List reads its presence as a sign of overgrazing.
• Desert squash (Citrullus colocynthis, حنظل). A creeper with round fruit, listed as poisonous.
• Senecio glaucus (زملوق). The yellow annual of wet winters, listed as toxic to animals and humans.

These four are not the only ones: UAE Flora also marks Iphiona aucheri as extremely poisonous. Do not pick or taste wild plants, and keep children away from the round desert-squash fruit.

Where wild plants grow in and around Dubai

Inside Dubai, the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve holds ghaf woodland and 72 plant species. In March 2020, Gulf News reported blooms around Hatta and in the Jebel Jais foothills after heavy winter rain.

A September 2026 report from the Emirates News Agency (WAM) puts the reserve at 225 square kilometres, about 5% of the emirate. In all, 562 species live there. Its habitats run from sand dunes and gravel plains to ghaf woodland.

The Al Marmoom Desert Reserve, south of Dubai, has its own guide.

Dr Reza Khan, the Dubai wildlife specialist quoted in the same Gulf News report, said that the view from places such as Masafi, Dibba, Khor Fakkan and Wadi Shees felt like spring gardens in Europe. He also said the heaviest rain had possibly fallen in the Hajar hills.

Can you pick desert flowers? What UAE law says

Photograph desert flowers rather than picking them. Under UAE Federal Law No. 24 of 1999, it is "prohibited to cut wild plants, uproot them or collect them illegally", as the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) summarises the law.

EAD also says it takes "strict measures on any felling of local trees with special regard for the Ghaf trees". EAD's page describes Abu Dhabi's own measures. It gives no penalty amount.

The same federal law underpins the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's controls on invasive plants, according to the 2024 Year of Sustainability planting guide. Keep to existing tracks; the wider rules for desert trips are set out in desert safari permits and regulations.