Distribution of invasive plants in the Nitra river basin: threats and benefits for food production

Abstract

Invasive plants are introduced multicellular organisms of the kingdom Plantae, which produce their food by photosynthesis. An invasive plant has the ability to thrive and spread aggressively outside its native range. A naturally aggressive plant may be especially invasive when it is introduced to a new habitat. The basic literature emphasizes mainly the ecological and environmental effects of invasive plants. Impacts of these plants on the food production have never been studied in details. The direct and indirect or potential effects of occurrence of invasive plants on food production have been analysed on basis of published data according to eight selected criteria: food, fodder for animals, food and drink additives, indirect support for food production, weeds on arable lands, meadow weeds, allergenic plants in food and toxic plants. The principal components analysis of habitat preferences of invasive plants in the Nitra river basin showed that the majority of invasive plants growing along rivers is edible (Fallopia spp., Helianthus tuberosus, Impatiens glandulifera) and invasive plants preferring drier agricultural fields or grasslands are toxic and/or allergenic with low or zero level of edibility (Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Heracleum mantegazzianum). The plants living in drier conditions may produce more toxins to protect the sources (eg. water) in their tissues than plants near water flows where there is abundance of sources.

Occurrence and Spread after 18 Years of Invasion by Fallopia × bohemica (Slovakia)

“…One population of F. × bohemica on the banks of the river Váh on the left side was removed. The significance of water flows is variable for different types of invasive plants found other authors [Beniak et al 2015, Fehér et al 2016. It is less significant for the species of the Fallopia genus, which corresponds well with our results.…”

Invasion of the Giant Hogweed and the Sosnowsky’s Hogweed as a Multidisciplinary Problem with Unknown Future—A Review

“…In central and Eastern Europe, two Caucasian hogweeds species, H. mantegazzianum and H. sosnowskyi, became problematic, e.g., in Poland [14], Ukraine [26,27], Russia [22]. Giant hogweed has been known from the Czech Republic [31][32][33][34][35][36][37], Germany [38][39][40], Austria [41], Great Britain [42], Slovakia [43], Croatia [44], Denmark [45], Norway [46]. The range of Caucasian hogweeds became so wide that they were the subject of many advanced spatial analyses, which were a great contribution of knowledge to the modern invasion ecol-ogy [47][48][49][50][51][52][53].…”

Constituents of the essential oil in Solidago canadensis L. from Eurasia

“…The resource potential of these «new species» didn't studyied in detail yet. The direct and indirect effects of occurrence of invasive plants on food production and other positive externalities of its appearence have been analysed only for a few species (Fehér et al, 2016). In this regard not without interest is genus Solidago L. that comprises about 100 species, five of them occurring in the Old World.…”