In the UAE, it was recorded in 2009 from Khor Kalba's protected area, before the area was designated. Globally, the native range of this species spans from Sahara to Tanzania, the Arabian Peninsula and India (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019).

G.R. Feulner (in litt, MEW 2010) stated that this plant has been recorded a few times in the UAE. However, there is a lack of distribution data available. Globally, this species is distributed across North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and Thailand (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2018).

Within the UAE this species inhabits salt flats around the Arabian Gulf coast (Jongbloed et al. 2003, Al Mehairbi et al. 2019). The species has also been observed in the Ru'us Al-Jibal Mountains to c.1,350 m elevation (Feulner 2011) and in the Wadi Wurayah National Park (Feulner 2016); it is considered typical of the Hajar Mountains (G. Brown pers. comm. 2019), and there is also a record from the east coast in Sharjah. Al Mehairbi et al. (2019) consider the species to be restricted to the Arabian Gulf coast, and even there, absent from large areas. Globally, this species occurs from north-eastern Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula, to Iran and Pakistan (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2018).

Within the UAE, this species is widespread in the Hajar Mountains and in the Ru'us al-Jibal, and also found on offshore islands (Jongbloed et al. 2003). Feulner found the species to c. 1,100 m asl in the Ru'us al-Jibal. The global native range of the species is from the south-east of the Arabian Peninsula to Iran and India (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019).

The species is known from a small number of scattered records. Jongbloed et al. (2003) cited records from Masafi, Al Ain and Ras al Khaimah. The species is also known from RBGE Herbarium records from <a href=""http://data.rbge.org.uk/herb/E00687349"">Jebel Hafeet</a> (lower slopes near Ain al Faidah, coll. R.A. Western, 1982), from steep rocky hills and wadis between <a href=""http://data.rbge.org.uk/herb/E00687361"">Khatt and Dibba </a>(R.A. Western, coll. 1982), and from near <a href=""http://data.rbge.org.uk/herb/E00687350"">Hatta </a>(bare, heavily eroded hills, coll. R.A. Western 1982). Feulner (2011) found it to occur regularly at higher elevations in the Ru'us al-Jibal from 250 to 1,600 m elevation. The global range of this species is from Mauritania, through the sahel, to north-east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019). In Oman, the species is found in southern Oman, Dhofar in the foothills and plains, in gravelly and stony places. Elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, the species is found in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen, and also on Socotra (S. Ghazanfar pers. comm. 2019).

This species occurs in the Ru'us al-Jibal in the UAE (Jongbloed et al. 2003, Feulner 2011). It is regularly seen at high altitudes, although it persists at a range of elevations (Feulner 2011) Globally, this species occurs in Oman, the UAE, the Middle East and Central Asia (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2018).

Brown and Sakkir (2004) report the species from rocky habitats in Abu Dhabi Emirate, without details. The draft Red Data Book for the UAE considered the species to be common in the northern region of the UAE (MEW 2010). The full distribution is not clear as a result of confusion with other members of the genus in the UAE. Feulner (2011) recorded S. raddiana from higher elevations in the Ru'us al-Jibal, and considered S. paradisea to be a synonym of S. raddiana. The native range of the species is Egypt and Somalia in Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula, and east to Afghanistan and the western Himalaya (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2018).

In the UAE, this species is widespread in the Hajar Mountains, and also occurs on Jebel Hafeet (Jongbloed et al. 2003). The species occurs in the southern Ru'us al-Jibal to c. 750 m (Feulner 2011) and in Wadi Wurayah National Park (WWNP; Feulner 2016). The global range of this species is Oman and the UAE in the Arabian Peninsula (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019).

In the UAE, this species is widespread in the Hajar Mountains, including the Ru'us al-Jibal (Feulner 2016), and on hillsides, also occurring occasionally on sand and gravelly plains (Jongbloed et al. 2003, Feulner 2014, 2016). G.R. Feulner (in lit, MEW 2010) notes that the species occurs on sandy gravelly plains as far west as the Sweihan area. The species occurs on Jebel Hafeet (Stuart and Stuart 1998, Fawzi and Ksiksi 2012), in the 'Olive Highlands' (Feulner 2014), and rarely in the Wadi Wurayah National Park (WWNP; Feulner 2016). The global range of this species is from the Arabian Peninsula to Iran (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019).

In the UAE, this species is recorded from sand plains near Al Ain (Jongbloed et al. 2003). Jongbloed et al. (2003; based on records from a helicopter survey by Mandaville in the early 1980s; G.R. Feulner pers. comm. 2020) records the species from the high Ru'us al-Jibal. However, in his checklist of the Ru'us al-Jibal species, Feulner (2011) only records this species from Jazirat al-Ghanem in northern Oman, and G.R. Feulner (pers. comm. 2020) confirmed that the Mandaville records are from Oman. G. Brown (pers. comm. 2019) considers that the species is absent from the UAE. It is possible that records should instead refer to O. arabicus. The global range of this species extends across northern Africa, and through the Arabian Peninsula to Iran and Pakistan (Board of Trustees, RBG Kew 2019).