How green is my desert

Dubai: Building developments are encroaching on wildlife in the UAE causing indigenous species to disappear.

Trekking through the wadis or hillsides will take you far off the beaten track to spot bright yellow, white or red petals. Prepare to don your walking boots and leave the car parked on the tarmac.

Walking up a small peak on rocky scrubland can bring you to an unforeseen patch of wild purple flowers and grasses. The hillsides have a green hue when seen from below, giving the usually barren landscape a spring-time feel.

Dr Reza Khan, director of Dubai Zoo and a keen botanist, knows all the nooks and crannies where the UAE's plants sprout after the rain.

Author of The Indigenous Trees of the United Arab Emirates guide for Dubai Municipality, Khan said wildflowers of the UAE are unknown to many people as they can be difficult to spot.

"Wild flowers have nowhere to grow anymore because their habitat is being taken up by the construction of roads or buildings. As soon as it rains some plants come to life, but with nowhere for them to grow it doesn't matter if it rains or not. Some can flower after 5 years," said Khan.

However Maerusa crassifolia is a shrub that is extremely rare nowadays.

"You used to find it a lot in the mountains, at the foothills of Hatta and Buraimi. They have disappeared because of overgrazing. Camels and goats just love it," said Khan.

"Wadi systems need to be protected. During the rainy season they can be like torrents and they are the natural irrigation systems of nature," said Khan.

Other plants have been used for centuries by bedouin men and women either as cures, painkillers or cosmetics and food.

For example the Fire bush (Calligonum comosum), known in Arabic as 'abal bush' is important as it stabilises sand. It has bright red, prickly lantern-shaped fruit which the bedouins used as a spice and the young shoots as a vegetable.

Many bedouin girls have rouged their cheeks with the bright red fruit. Also the burnt woody parts of the Eyelash plant (Blepharis ciliaris) locally known as 'kahil' or 'kohl', used to be mixed to make a black powder and applied to the eyes, both as a cosmetic or to soothe eye infections.

Wanderers in the desert might also come across the desert squash (citrullus colocynthis) called Hanzal in Arabic. It has a yellow bitter fruit unfit for human consumption.

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