INVASIVENESS

Possible attribute values:

Invasive status (according to Richardson et al. 2000):

• Casual alien plants: Alien plants that may flourish and even reproduce occasionally in an area, but which do not form self-replacing populations, and which rely on repeated introductions for their persistence.
• Naturalized plants: Alien plants that reproduce consistently (cf. casual alien plants) and sustain populations over many life cycles without direct intervention by humans (or in spite of human intervention); they often recruit offspring freely, usually close to adult plants, and do not necessarily invade natural, semi-natural or human-made ecosystems.
• Invasive plants: Naturalized plants that produce reproductive offspring, often in very large numbers, at considerable distances from parent plants, and thus have the potential to spread over a considerable area.

Invasive elsewhere:

• Yes: the species is invasive elsewhere in the world
• No

Abundance:

• Rare: occurs in 1-9 hectads (grid squares of 10 x 10 km; New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora (2002)).
• Occasional: occurs in 10-49 hectads.
• Common: occurs in at least 50 hectads and in at least 5 different vice-counties.

If the species was not mentioned in the New Atlas, information was derived from ‘A catalogue of alien plants in Ireland’ (Reynolds 2002).

Number of hectads:

Number of grid squares of 10 x 10 km in which the species occurred in the period 1987 – 1999. Data derived from the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora (2002), eds: Preston CD, Pearman DA, Dines TD, Oxford University Press. The maximum number of hectads for Ireland is 987.

Economic weed:

• Yes: the species is a weed in agriculture, horticulture, turf, nurseries, etc. elsewhere in the world
• No

Type of introduction:

• Deliberate
• Accidental
• Both deliberate and accidental

Planting purpose:

• Cultivation
• Fodder
• Food
• Forestry
• Landscaping
• Medicinal
• Ornamental
• etc.

Vector of accidental introduction:

• Agricultural seed
• Ballast
• Bird-seed
• Cotton
• Flax
• Fodder
• Food
• Garden plants
• Grain
• Grass seed
• Oil-seed
• Wool
• etc.

First record:

Date (year) of first record in the wild in Ireland. Only reliable records (sensu Reynolds 2002) are shown. If only the first publication date is known, the date is given as pre-18xx or pre-19xx. Additional early record dates are available from Reynolds 2002.

Native range:

Geographical regions where native, according to Weber 2003

• Northern Europe (Scandinavia: Finland, Norway, Sweden)
• British Isles
• Central Europe (Austria, Benelux states, Denmark, France without the Mediterranean border, Germany, Switzerland)
• Southern Europe (Southern France, Greece, Italy, Spain)
• Eastern Europe (All European states east of Austria, Germany, Italy, European part of Russia, European part of Turkey)
• Mediterranean Islands
• Northern Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco)
• Tropical Africa (All African states between northern and southern Africa)
• Southern Africa (Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland)
• Temperate Asia (Middle East, China, Japan, Asian part of Russia)
• Tropical Asia (India, Sri Lanka, all states east of India and bordering the south of China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines)
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Canada + Alaska
• South-eastern USA (States of continental USA bordering the Gulf of Mexico: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, eastern Texas)
• Western USA (States of continental USA bordering the Pacific Ocean)
• Remaining USA (All states of continental USA between western and south-eastern USA)
• Mexico
• Tropical South America (All states of continental South America beyond Mexico and except Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)
• Chile, Argentina
• Cape Verde
• Canary + Madeira
• Azores
• South Atlantic Islands
• Madagascar
• Hawaii

Or:

• Cultivation
• Spontaneous hybrid

Vice-counties:

List of Irish vice-counties. It should be noted that the vice-counties given for a particular taxon usually represent all records, whether historical or recent.