Testing the roles of species native origin and family membership in intentional plant introductions using nursery data across the state of Kentucky

Abstract

Abstract Biological invasions frequently bring about negative impacts on natural ecosystems, including changing their structure and function and causing loss of biodiversity. A large percentage of invasive species are introduced intentionally as horticulture plants by the green industry. Repeated introductions of non-native plant species have accelerated the invasion processes considerably despite the fact that only a small percentage of intentional introductions actually become invasive. Currently, there is a lack of specific information on non-native and invasive plants in the state of Kentucky, especially concerning species origin, taxonomic affinity, and the pathway of species introduction. This study is designed to gather information about plant species found in nurseries across the state of Kentucky to test the hypothesis that species belonging to certain families and coming from particular geographical regions may have a higher possibility to be introduced into new locations as horticulture plants....