Artemisia verlotiorum in Ukraine
Artemisia verlotiorum (Asteraceae) is native to China and established in Africa, west Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Within the EPPO region, it is a widespread species. In Switzerland, it has been listed as an invasive alien plant since 2013, and it is considered invasive in Croatia, Spain, Italy (including Sardinia), Slovenia and in the Mediterranean part of France. The first known record of A. verlotiorum in Ukraine was in the 1920s. The species has been recorded from the Crimea region and from Transcarpathia and Lviv. In 2018, A. verlotiorum was discovered in Kyiv (north central part of the country) in the Syrets Arboretum (Syretskiy Dendropark) and in a nearby abandoned plant nursery and associated greenhouses. At present, three clonal colonies have been revealed. The authors suggest that the most probable pathway of spread into these areas was through rhizomes as a contaminant of soil or soil attached to plants. However, one colony (along the wall of the administrative building of the arboretum) most probably emerged from seeds dispersed by wind from the main colony in the abandoned nursery.
Sources
Mosyakin SL, Boiko GV, Glukhova SA (2019) Artemisia verlotiorum (Asteraceae) in the continental part of Ukraine: now in Kyiv. Plant taxonomy, Geography and Floristics 76(1), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.15407/ukrbotj76.01.003