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Non-Native Invasive
A joint project of the St.Johns River Water Management District |
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Non-Native Invasive
A joint project of the St.Johns River Water Management District |
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What's the problem?
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This web site is part of the University of Florida APIRS web
site; and was funded by the St. Johns River Water
Management District
(Florida) .
Natural areas of the U.S., including the country's
forests
and parks, face trouble.
One source of trouble is the quickly-spreading problem of non-native invasive terrestrial plants, plants that
can and do spread into and infest the terrestrial ecosystems of the United States.
All plants evolve with natural growth checks that help keep plant populations
in balance, "checks" such as fungus, bacteria and ordinary plant diseases; insects and other
animals; climate; soils and geology, etc. All play their part in Nature's balancing act. In a
balanced
ecosystem, variety reins. In a balanced ecosystem, there is a biodiversity of plants, growing and
evolving.
However, when a non-native plant, a species that evolved someplace else, is
introduced into new areas, it usually does not have its natural growth checks. So, often
enough, the non-native plant is able to grow wildly, quickly covering, smothering and replacing
the plants that were naturally there in the first place. The non-native plant may form an exotic
monoculture (where no other plants grow).
Naturally, we want our own native plants, beautifully unique, not to be replaced by
somewhere else's beautifully unique plants.
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Non-native terrestrial invasive plants crowd-out, smother and otherwise
replace native grasses and trees, often permanently altering native ecosystems. In addition,
stands
of non-native plants usually are not useful to the nation's wildlife, including birds, insects,
mammals and other animals. Native wildlife has evolved to be dependent on native plants for
food, shelter, and nest-building. and shelter. Only sometimes are native animals able to adapt to
newly introduced, non-native plants. Should non-native plants replace too many of our native
plants, those animals that are dependent on native plants will move away or even perish (become
extirpated).
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Worth remembering! Their plants somehow get here, and our plants
somehow get there. Our own benign beloved plants, when introduced to other areas, often
become their invasive plants, plants to curse and have
meetings about. These are global problems. For a bit more information about
the global aspects of plant invasions, see this
AQUAPHYTE article.
Government agencies are marshalling their resources, spurred by a Presidential Executive Order. And a National Management Plan has been
published by The National Invasive Species Council. However, citizens also must play their
part;
here's what you can do.
Because we all want to preserve our own pieces of paradise, there
is tremendous interest in identifying and controlling non-native invasive plants
before they grow, spread, and have irreversible effects on our lands and waters.
That's where this web site comes in. For each of the plants listed below, we review as much
information as is known, based on the scientific literature as found in APIRS, one of the world's
largest collections of primary information about invasive plants.
Many states have their own laws, lists, rules and regulations regarding
non-native plants. Do you know what yours
are?
There are more non-native plants elsewhere on this APIRS web
site. Click on those marked
Non-Native.
In this St. Johns River Water Management District information
project, we focus on the
most invasive terrestrial plants which are affecting Florida and the United States. Unfortunately,
there
are many more such plants; we hope to include many of them here in the future.
CAIP-WEBSITE@ufl.edu
Copyright 2001 University of Florida
