The current presence and origin of this species in the UAE are uncertain. Jongbloed et al. (2003) listed 'Salix cf. acmophylla' and showed a single site in the northern Hajar Mountains in the UAE, based on a record of a solitary plant in a wadi bed plantation near Al-Ghail (G.R. Feulner, in litt, MEW 2010), but that plant was not found on a return visit to the area a number of years later (G.R. Feulner pers. comm. 2019). Feulner (2001) and Jongbloed et al. (2003) reported two sites with small stands of S. acmophylla in wadis in Wilayat Mahdhah, Oman, adjacent to the UAE border north of Buraimi. Feulner (pers. comm. 2019) noted that all records from northern Oman and the UAE are from agricultural or peri-agricultural areas. This species occurs mainly in the Middle East, from Sinai and Turkey east through Iran and Iraq to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, with a few scattered population in the Arabian Peninsula (Nasir and Ali 1980-2005). In the Arabian Peninsula, this species is known from north-west and the east of Saudi Arabia (Chaudhary 2001) and Oman (Miller and Cope 1996).