ANALYSIS OF THE ALIEN FLORA OF DNIPROPETROVSK PROVINCE

Abstract

Plant invasion in the Northern Steppe Dnieper has a long history complicated by excessive anthropogenic transformation of territory. Alien species status, origin areas, life history, and invasive tendency of alien species in Dnipropetrovsk region were investigated. The presence of 286 alien species of 61 families was registered. Some 7 families had the greatest species diversity (156 alien species that was 55% of total species number); 30 families were represented by 2–9 alien species, and 24 families contained only 1 alien species. So, the current proportion of the alien species was almost 17% in the regional flora. Archaeophytes consist of 40% of the total alien species, while neophytes had more than 60%. The proportion of naturalized species amounted 58% from alien species, whereas the share of casual species was 42%. The greatest abundance of alien species was typical for Brassicaceae, Asterasea, and Poaceae (14, 13, and 9% of the total species number). We proved invasive status of 28 species and positive trend regard alien species ratio for last years.