Plant Alert
is a new project aimed at discovering which garden plants have the potential to
become invasive and problematic in future.
Gardeners
across Britain and Ireland are being asked to report potentially invasive
garden plants using the new Plant Alert web page: plantalert.org
Why is Plant Alert so important?
The majority
of invasive plants in the UK - such as Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam -
were initially introduced as ornamental plants and then spread from gardens
into the wider environment. To prevent further plant invasions, gardeners can
help by reporting plants that are spreading in their gardens right now and are
proving difficult to control. The aim is to help monitor potentially
invasive garden plants over time and hopefully detect species that have up to
now not shown clear signs of invasiveness but could do so in a changing
climate.
How to get involved with Plant Alert
Send Plant Alert
your report of potentially invasive garden plants using the form on
the website. You can submit your records from your desktop or smartphone: plantalert.org/app
You don't
need to give precise details of your location - a town and grid ref or postcode
are requested so your records show up on this map. Records will be archived by BSBI, but you
can choose whether to provide your name and email address or to submit
anonymously.
The survey
asks you to report on how confident you are about the plant's ID (you can
upload a photo or ask for ID help if you are unsure); you are asked how
the plant arrived in your garden and how it spreads there, how you control and
dispose of it, how successful your control attempts are, if the plant grows in
your area... It's easy to go back and edit the report if you need to!
Check out
the map showing mapped locations and click on the
icon to see which potentially invasive plants have been reported from that
location.
Background to the project
The majority of our ornamental plants are non-native. They contribute greatly to our enjoyment of gardens and represent a long history of plant discovery and garden design. However, some have escaped the controlled environment of gardens, and a small minority of these are threatening native biodiversity or are causing severe problems for infrastructure, agriculture or forestry. Well known examples include Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Rhododendron ponticum and Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera).The period between introduction of a species and it first being noticed as a problem can be a long one, making future control problematic. In Britain on average, this time span has been more than one hundred years. Early detection of potentially problematic plants for further risk assessment could greatly improve our ability to prevent plant species becoming invasive.
This survey is based upon the assumption that it is gardeners who are most likely to notice first if a particular ornamental plant may have the potential to spread outside the garden. (Most gardeners will know which plants tend to overgrow others or tend to spread all over the garden.) This knowledge could be invaluable in identifying potential invaders, triggering timely risk assessment.