Pathway analysis: terrestrial plants imported from East Asia into EPPO countries
A pathway analysis for terrestrial ornamental plants imported from East Asia into EPPO countries has been undertaken to provide information on the imports themselves and to identify emerging terrestrial invasive alien plants. Data for terrestrial ornamental plants imported from East Asia into Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey was assembled at the genus level from 2005 to 2010. Results showed that thousands of species of plants for planting are imported from East Asia in very large volumes. However, despite the fact that the data were only analyzed at the genus level, it is considered that only a very limited number of taxa would become invasive. The potentially invasive alien species are already widely available in European nurseries and are principally produced within the European Union.
Sources
van Valkenburg J, Brunel S, Brundu G, Ehret P, Follak S, Uludag A (2014) Is terrestrial plant import from East Asia into countries in the EPPO region a potential pathway for new emerging invasive alien plants? Bulletin OEPP/EPPO Bulletin 44, 195–204. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/epp.12131/abstract