Gardening the menace!

Abstract

Biodiversity across the globe are facing major threats to their ecological balance as a result of invasion by non-native species. In an endeavour to beautify our gardens with exotic species, several alien plants have been imported to the areas beyond their natural geographical range. Many of them are highly invasive and have deleterious impact on the environment. In an attempt to reach out to many threatened pollinators, city gardens have facilitated the implantation of several flowering non-native weeds. These non-indigenous plants often outcompete the native ones, leading to extinction of many native species. Further, these invasive species not only reduce native biodiversity but also alter key ecological processes like nutrient cycling, primary productivity, hydrology, soil structure etc. Thus, such exotic species frequently destroy natural ecosystem and have become a menace for management in the parks and reserves. In this review, we have discussed a great breadth of the causes, consequences and way forward to reduce the impact of these plant invasions on our ecosystem.

Keywords

• Biological invasion
• Exotic species
• Globalization impact
• Ornamental plants