UAEU Herbarium is the oldest and largest in ‎the country

The UAEU Herbarium is working on several ‎important projects that keep pace with ‎technological development, especially in the ‎use of artificial intelligence applications. A ‎specialized team is digitizing the herbarium ‎and conducting a comprehensive survey of all ‎samples in preparation for the launch of a ‎special application to define the plants of the ‎United Arab Emirates‏.‏

Dr. Khalid Al Amiri, Head of Department of ‎Biology and Director of Khalifa Center for ‎Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, ‎explained: "The UAEU herbarium is the first ‎herbarium in the UAE and is registered in the ‎Index Herbarium (NYBG) as the oldest and ‎largest herbarium in the country. The ‎herbarium includes about 19,000 dried plant ‎samples in their scientific names.", with ‎information representing 630 species of wild ‎plants that have been recorded in the ‎environments in the country such as deserts, ‎mountains, valleys or plains. It also included ‎‎79 plant families, the largest of which is the ‎Gramineae that contains 82 species, and the ‎compositae family that contains 53 species‎‏.‏

Dr. Khaled Al Amiri added: "The herbarium ‎provides many services, the most important ‎of which is the identification and classification ‎of wild plants and weeds associated with ‎agricultural crops and providing researchers ‎and students with information and data about ‎wild plants in the United Arab Emirates ‎including descriptions, locations, densities, ‎flowering and fruiting periods. Besides, the ‎faculty members can use the Herbarium to ‎give lectures to students in the field of plant ‎taxonomy and flora, train students on ‎preparing, defining and classifying plant ‎samples, dissect different plant parts, and ‎conduct scientific trips with researchers and ‎students to collect plant and wild samples‏.‏

The herbarium includes a large group of dried ‎plant samples that vary greatly in economic ‎importance, some of which are used ‎pastorally to feed animals, such as (Chloris, ‎Cynodon, Acalypha Hispida, Panicum, Aster) ‎and some are used as food or medicine for ‎humans‏.‏

The Herbarium issued the Flora of the United ‎Arab Emirates book in 2007. The book, which ‎includes two parts, presents an extensive ‎study on the classification of wild plants and ‎weeds associated with agricultural crops. The ‎book is considered a guide to identifying ‎about 630 species whose existence has been ‎recorded within the country‏.‏

The Flora of the United Arab Emirates book is ‎a scientific botanical encyclopedia. The first ‎part includes a complete description of about ‎‎250 plants under 40 plant families, in addition ‎to providing more than a hundred color ‎pictures and 184 illustrations of plants. The ‎second part contains a complete description ‎of about 350 plants under 39 families, ‎providing about 123 pictures and 199 ‎illustrations‏.‏‎ ‎