Invasive, naturalized and casual alien plants in southern Africa: a sum- mary based on the Southern African Plant Invaders Atlas (SAPIA)

By Lesley Henderson. 2007

325 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The primary objective of this publication is to provide an overview of the species identity, invasion status, geographical extent, and abundance of alien plants in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, based on field records from 1979 to the end of 2000. The dataset is all the species records for the study area in the Southern African Plant Invaders Atlas (SAPIA) database during this time period. A total of 548 naturalized and casual alien plant species were catalogued and invasion was recorded almost throughout the study area. Most invasion, in terms of both species numbers and total species abundance, was recorded along the southern, southwestern and eastern coastal belts and in the adjacent interior. This area includes the whole of the Fynbos and Forest Biomes, and the moister eastern parts of the Grassland and Savanna Biomes. This study reinforces previous studies that the Fynbos Biome is the most extensively invaded vegetation type in South Africa but it also shows that parts of Savanna and Grassland are as heavily invaded as parts of the Fynbos. The Fabaceae is prominent in all biomes and Acacia with 17 listed species, accounts for a very large proportion of all invasion. Acacia mearmii was by far the most prominent invasive species in the study area, followed by A. saligna , Lantana camara , A. cyclops , Opuntia ficus-indica . Solarium mauritianum , Populus alba/xcanescens , Melia azedarach , A. dealbata and species of Prosopis .

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Forestry, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ef6b19e84f8f3d454d9ccf03bd51e1d2aef46c71

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. D. Richardson
2. Petr Pyšek
3. John R. U. Wilson
4. M. Rejmánek
5. L. Foxcroft
6. B. V. van Wilgen
7. J. Hoffmann
8. D. L. Le Maître

In Forestry

1. John R. U. Wilson
2. D. Richardson
3. J. Hoffmann
4. D. L. Le Maître
5. Petr Pyšek
6. Brian W. van Wilgen

In Plant Science

1. D. Richardson
2. Petr Pyšek
3. John R. U. Wilson
4. M. Rejmánek
5. L. Foxcroft
6. B. V. van Wilgen
7. J. Hoffmann
8. Lesley Henderson

Citations in the corpus

• The impact of invasive alien Prosopis species (mesquite) on native plants in different environments in South Africa. (2015, background): “In terms of land area invaded, Prosopis is ranked as the second worst invasive alien plant taxon in South Africa after Australian Acacia species (Henderson, 2007).”
• Biological Control of Mesquite (Prosopis Species) (Fabaceae) in South Africa (2011, background): “Henderson (2007) ranked invasive alien plants in South Africa using a biome-based approach.”
• An assessment of the effectiveness of a large, national-scale invasive alien plant control strategy in South Africa (2012, unknown): “In the case of the SAPIA database, a biome-scale analysis of the data was already available (Henderson, 2007).”
• Alien plant invasions in tropical and sub-tropical savannas: patterns, processes and prospects (2010, background): “Alternatively, invasions may be widespread, but not adequately reported across much of Africa, where invasions have been markedly understudied with the exception of South Africa (Pyšek et al. 2008).”
• Ecology and management of alien plant invasions in South African fynbos: Accommodating key complexities in objective decision making (2009, background): “Numerous plant species have been introduced over the past centuries, and many have invaded large areas of natural vegetation and are still spreading ( Henderson, 2007 ).”
• Changes in the composition and distribution of alien plants in South Africa: An update from the Southern African Plant Invaders Atlas (2017, methodology): “The first comprehensive overview of the SAPIA database was published in 2007 (Henderson 2007).”
• Biological Control of Australian Acacia Species and Paraserianthes lophantha (Willd.) Nielsen (Mimosaceae) in South Africa (2011, background): “More recently, A. longifolia ranked only 21st in an analysis of the relative prominence of 90 invasive plant species in South Africa (Henderson 2007).”
• The Worldwide Spread, Success, and Impact of Ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) (2017, background): “Moreover it appears that the species is expanding toward Southern Africa (Botswana, South Africa, and Swaziland) (Setshogo, 2005; Henderson, 2007; Randall, 2012; Swaziland’s Alien Plants Database at: http://www. sntc.org.sz/alienplants/index.asp).”