Four records of alien species new to the flora of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

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 – Cyperus glaber (Cyperaceae), Ageratina adenophora (Asteraceae), Opuntia dillenii (Cactaceae) and Coccinia grandis (Cucurbitaceae). Some of them have been recorded for the first time from the emirate Fujairah in the north-eastern part of the UAE. Cyperus glaber, which is rare in the country, was found only in plant nursery in the NE part of the farm of Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, in Al Taiba, in environs of the city of Fujairah. Ageratina adenophora was found at Dibba town as a weed, in private nurseries located in 0.2 km to South from the Al Amerey Nursery and in the city of Fujairah, as a weed in irrigated rounds between highway lanes. Opuntia dillenii grows as a naturalized plant in Masafi town (near Masafi Fort) on a roadside steep slope near a garden fence. Coccinia grandis was found as a weed in a number of nurseries in Dibba town and the village of Al Bidiya (for example, “Desert Oasis Nursery Bidyah” in Al Bidiya, “Al Amerey Nursery”), as well at Dibba town and among decorative shrubs on the middle line of the Fujairah Corniche, in the city of Fujairah. They are all new for the flora of Fujairah and the UAE. Species, synonyms, spatial distribution, habitat preferences, and species taxonomy with remarks on identification and differentiation from the most similar taxa occurring in the study area, as well as the list of localities are presented. The herbarium materials were transferred to the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute (LE, St. Petersburg, Russia), and the duplicates to the Herbarium of Altai State University (ALTB, Barnaul, Russia).