New records of alien species of the family Urticaceae in the Fujairah Emirate (UAE)

During floristic research in 2017–2020 in the Emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the authors made new findings of species from family Urticaceae that complement the species composition of the flora of vascular plants in the territory of the emirate and the UAE as a whole. The article presents data on 4 new to the UAE alien ergasiophytes from Urticaceae – Laportea interrupta (L.) Chew. (a weed in the plant nursery in Al Bidiya), Pilea microphylla (L.) Liebm. (a weed in nurseries in Al Dibba and Al Bidiya), Pouzolzia zeylanica (L.) Benn. (a weed in the seaside promenade of city of Al Fujeirah), and Pilea microphylla and Pouzolzia zeylanica also for Arabia in general. A preliminary assessment of the species diversity of family Urticaceae in the Arabian Peninsula is also given. Taking into account new records, 7 species from 6 genera belonging to this family have been identified in the UAE. The herbarium materials were transferred to the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute (LE, Saint-Petersburg, Russia), the duplicates – to the Herbarium of Altai State University (ALTB, Barnaul, Russia) and the Scientific Herbarium of Fujairah (FSH, Wadi Wuraya, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates).

им. В. Л. Комарова (LE, г. Санкт-Петербург, Россия), дубликаты -в Гербарий Алтайского государственного университета (ALTB, г. Барнаул, Россия) и Научный гербарий Фуджейры (FSH, Вади Вурайя национальный парк, эмират Фуджейра, ОАЭ). This research is a part of the project "Flora of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates", under a cooperation agreement between the Office of the Crown Prince of Fujairah and the V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (Byalt et al., 2020a, b). In the course of field research in 2017-2020 and as a result of study of collected materials, the authors clarified information on the distribution of new alien (adventive) plant species in the territory of the Emirate of Fujairah (United Arab Emirates -UAE). We quite agree that the study of the processes of anthropogenic transformation of flora and monitoring of alien species are an important part of regional floristic research (Pyšek et al., 2004;Zykova, Shaulo, 2020;etc.). There is still insufficient information about the alien component of the Fujairah flora represented by species that were accidentally introduced and escape from the cultivation (Byalt, Korshunov, 2018, 2020a. Our recent studies of the flora of the region make a feasible contribution to the study of the biodiversity of Fujairah including its adventive element. Urticaceae family is rather poorly represented in the flora of the Arabian Peninsula, in comparison with the tropics of America, Africa, South and East Asia (Lenardi, 1964;Chen et al., 2003;Monro, 2009;Neto, Gaglioli, 2010;etc.). While for the Arabian Peninsula and island Socotra Miller and Cope (1996) lifera L., and U. urens L. Heller and Heyn (1994) listed 25 species and 2 subspecies from 8 genera of Urticaceae for the whole of the Middle East including the Arabian Peninsula.
We found that the distribution of Urticaceae in Arabia is very uneven and their greatest number is confined to the southwest and north of the peninsula (Yemen and Saudi Arabia), while the desert and waterless east of Arabia are poor in them, up to their absence in flora.
Our research shows that family Urticaceae in the UAE flora is represented by a minimum number of native species and, apparently, an increase in its species diversity is possible only due to alien ones. This is fully confirmed by our new data. As a result of the research carried out in the Fujairah emirate, we have identified rare and new species of this family (4 species from 4 genera) for the emirate.
To determine the status of an alien species, the following criteria were used: a large separation of the locality from the main range, data on its introduction into a neighboring region, the presence of the species only in cultivation, as well as its presence exclusively in disturbed anthropogenic habitats (Egorov et al., 2016;Baranova et al., 2018). The discovered new alien species were identified in all kinds of disturbed habitats. For each species, data from the herbarium label in English (as in the original) are provided, as well as, if available, information on the distribution in the UAE and, if necessary, brief comments on the distribution in Arabia with the greatest specification for Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and adjacent territory of Saudi Arabia. New records of alien species of Urticaceae in the Fujairah Emirate (UAE)

Material and methods
The herbarium specimens were collected in several localities in the territory of the Emirate of Fujairah (United Arab Emirates -UAE) (Fig. 1).
The online resource, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 2020) was used for additional information on the distribution of studied taxa which was first critically analysed by the authors of this paper. The names of the taxa, authors' abbreviations and places of publication were checked against the protologues and records in the International Plant Name Index (IPNI, 2021) (Byalt et al., 2020). The labels are in English as in the original. The numbers in square brackets indicate the place of our research, recorded by GPS "[point 776] and others." They are given on the labels for the convenience of working with the herbarium.  (Miller, Morris, 1988;Ghazanfar, 1992Ghazanfar, , 2003Mosti et al., 2012), but it is rather rare "on the wet escarpment woodlands". In Fujairah and the United Arab Emirates as a whole, this species has not been recorded (Western, 1989;Böer, 2000;Jongbloed et al., 2003;Karim, Fazwi, 2007) and was not found in cultivation. We managed to find this plant in a fairly large number in the "Al Qalamoon Nursery" in the village Al Bidiya, where it grows in large groups inside a big temporarily abandoned greenhouse and in a vacant lot between the nursery fence and the greenhouse. Some plants can be found in other parts of the nursery as well. Apparently Laportea interrupta was accidentally brought with plant material from India or Pakistan, where this plant is quite common, while we doubt that it could have come to Fujairah from southern Oman, where it grows in the wild. We believe that Laportea interrupta is not yet a potentially invasive species, since it was found only in one plant nursery (Fig. 2). vated or as an alien species (Colenette, 1985(Colenette, , 1999Cornes C., Cornes M., 1989;Migahid, 1989;Western, 1989;Miller, Cope, 1996;Wood, 1997;Böer, 2000;Ghazanfar, 2003;Jongbloed, 2003;Karim, Fazwi, 2007;Norton et al., 2009;etc.). According to our observations, this plant is growing as occasional weed in a number of private plant nurseries in Fujairah in Dibba and the village Al Bidiya. It usually forms small clumps on damp sand (in places of regular and abundant watering) in the shade, in pots and between pots with cultivated plants. Most commonly found in and around Cycas revoluta L. (Cycadaceae) pots (Fig. 3). This may indicate that Pilea microphylla was accidentally introduced with plant material from India or Pakistan (from where Cycas are brought to nurseries and grown for saleaccording to nursery staff) and where Pilea is a fairly common weed (POWO, 2020).  (Western, 1993;Jongbloed, 2003;Karim, 2007;etc.) shows that Pouzolzia zeylanica was not given for the UAE earlier. It is absent in other countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Miller, Cope, 1996) including Oman (Ghazanfar, 1992), Saudi Arabia (Collenette, 1985(Collenette, , 1999Migahid, 1996;Chaudhary, 1999; etc.), Qatar (Norton et al., 2009) andYemen (Wood, 1997). A new alien species for Fujairah, UAE and the Arabian Peninsula in general. The plant is not of ornamental value, but it is used in medicine in Southeast Asia (Valkenburg, Bunyapraphatsara, 2001). Perhaps it was brought by the Hindustani living in Fujairah and is grown for medicinal purposes and has already begun to run wild, or it is a typical weed that accidentally came to the coast with planting material when landscaping the median strip of the highway on the seafront of Al Fujairah (Fig. 4). According to our data, planting material of woody plants is quite often imported from Pakistan or India and purchased from local nurseries for sale.  (POWO, 2020). It is believed to come from Europe, although this cannot be considered fully proven (Geltman, 2004). It is actively recorded and found on all continents. According to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 2020), it was accidentally introduced in more than 30 countries of the world including some countries on the Arabian Peninsula. According to the literature data, U. urens grows as weed in Saudi Arabia (Collenette, 1985(Collenette, , 1999Migahid, 1996), Yemen, andisl. Socotra (Wood, 1997), Kuwait (Miller, Cope, 1996) and Qatar (Abdel Bary, 2012). In Fujairah and the United Arab Emirates, this species has not yet been recorded in local floras and checklists as an alien species (Western, 1989;Böer, 2000;Jongbloed et al., 2003;Karim, Fazwi, 2007) but was reported for the United Arab Emirates without indication the exact location in the "Flora of Arabian Peninsula" (Miller, Cope, 1996). We have repeatedly observed this plant in plant nurseries in the environs of Masafi, however, it occurs only in spring (during the rainy cool period) on damp sand between plant pots in a very small number of individuals. We assume that this weed enters the nursery with seedlings of plants (for example, from the Rosaceae family) from Spain or Portugal (i.e. from Europe), where U. urens is a common plantation weed. We believe that stinging nettle is not yet a potentially invasive species, since it is found in very small quantities and is quite hygrophilous. New records of alien species of Urticaceae in the Fujairah Emirate (UAE)

Conclusion
Until now, the Urticaceae family has been represented on the Arabian Peninsula by 19 species from 9 genera (Miller, Cope, 1996;etc.). At the same time, taking into account our new records of Laportea interrupta, Pilea microphylla, Pouzolzia zeylanica, 7 species from 6 genera of this family have been identified in the UAE so far, and their number in Arabia has reached 21 species.

Acknowledgements
The work was performed in the framework of the institutional research project of the V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute "Vascular plants of Eurasia: taxonomy, flora, plant resources" № AAAA-A19-119031290052-1. The authors express their gratitude to His Excellency Salem Al Zahmi (Director of H. H. Crown-Prince Office) 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 this study. We would also like to express our special thanks to Dr. D. V. Geltman from the V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute of RAS in St.-Petersburg (Russia) for his help in identifying Urticaceae species.