Disruption of mycorrhizal fungi that form symbioses with local native plants is a strategy used by some invasive exotic plants for competing within their resident communities. Example invasive plants include Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) and Brassica nigra (black mustard), both non-mycorrhizal plants in the Family Brassicaceae. Although there is clear evidence for mycorrhizal degradation,...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Invasive plants can be released from specialist herbivores and encounter novel generalists in their introduced ranges, leading to variation in defence among native and invasive populations. However, few studies have examined how constitutive and induced indirect defences change during plant invasion, especially during the juvenile stage. METHODS Constitutive extrafloral ne...

Invasive exotic plants reduce the diversity of native communities by displacing native species. According to the coexistence theory, native plants are able to coexist with invaders only when their fi tness is not signifi cantly smaller than that of the exotics or when they occupy a diff erent niche. It has therefore been hypothesized that the survival of some native species at invaded sites is ...

Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Lam.) Spach., a relict tree species of the Juglandaceae family, is native to the Great Caucasus, Anatolia, and to the Hyrcanian forests of the southern Azerbaijan and Northern Iran. In this study, the phylogenetic relationship of the species, sampled in selected Iranian populations, and the global biogeography of the genus Pterocarya were addressed. Leaves were collecte...

Introduced and invasive species have been recognized as potential threats to natural plant communities. Many such plant species are introduced along roadways, which then can spread to adjacent fields and forests. The West Virginia Division of Highways is required to develop seeding mixtures comprised of native plants for revegetating highway corridors and thereby to reduce the potential for int...