ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e161758
Compiling and analyzing the non-native flora of a megadiverse Neotropical country: a new catalogue for continental Ecuador
Ileana Herrera‡§, Anahí Vargas|, Kimberly Rizzo|, Zhofre Aguirre¶, Isabella Dillon|, Brunny Espinoza-Amén#, Felipe Espinoza De Janon¤, Andrés Espinoza-Maticurena|, José R. Ferrer-Paris«, Efrain Freire», Carlos Gómez-Bellver˄, Diego Gutierrez del Pozo˅, Vanessa Lucia Lozano¦, Alejandra Moscoso-Estrellaˀ, Nora Oleasˁ, Kevin Panchana|, Sebastián Pardo¶, Katya Romoleroux₵, Verónica Sandoya Sánchezℓ, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa₰, Isabela Vieira|, Jordi López-Pujol₱‡ Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INABIO), Quito, Ecuador§ Universidad Espiritu Santo (UEES), Samborondon, Ecuador| Centro de Investigaciones, Universidad Espíritu Santo, Samborondón, Ecuador, Samborondón, Ecuador¶ Universidad Nacional de Loja, Loja, Ecuador# Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Biology, Brussels, Belgium¤ School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom« School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia» Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Quito, Ecuador˄ Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB), CSIC-CMCNB, Barcelona, Spain˅ Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Puyo, Ecuador¦ Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy, Sassari, Italyˀ Departamento de Biología, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuadorˁ Facultad de Ciencias de Medio Ambiente, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador₵ Herbario Departamento de Biología, Roca Quito, Ecuadorℓ School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Yachay Tech University, Urcuquí, Ecuador₰ Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, United States of America₱ Botanic Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-ICUB), Barcelona, Spain
Corresponding author: Ileana Herrera ( herrera.ita@gmail.com ) Corresponding author: Vanessa Lozano ( vlozano13@gmail.com ) Corresponding author: Jordi López-Pujol ( jlopez@ibb.csic.es ) © Ileana Herrera, Anahí Vargas, Kimberly Rizzo, Zhofre Aguirre, Isabella Dillon, Brunny Espinoza-Amén, Felipe Espinoza De Janon, Andrés Espinoza-Maticurena, José R. Ferrer-Paris, Efrain Freire, Carlos Gómez-Bellver, Diego Gutierrez del Pozo, Vanessa Lozano, Alejandra Moscoso-Estrella, Nora Oleas, Kevin Panchana, Sebastián Pardo, Katya Romoleroux, Verónica Sandoya Sánchez, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, Isabela Vieira, Jordi López-Pujol. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Herrera I, Vargas A, Rizzo K, Aguirre Z, Dillon I, Espinoza-Amén B, Espinoza De Janon F, Espinoza-Maticurena A, Ferrer-Paris JR, Freire E, Gómez-Bellver C, Gutierrez del Pozo D, Lozano V, Moscoso-Estrella A, Oleas N, Panchana K, Pardo S, Romoleroux K, Sandoya Sánchez V, Ulloa Ulloa C, Vieira I, López-Pujol J (2025) Compiling and analyzing the non-native flora of a megadiverse Neotropical country: a new catalogue for continental Ecuador. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e161758 |  |
Abstract
The aim of this study is to describe the non-native vascular flora of continental Ecuador and analyze its basic biogeographic and ecological attributes to inform biological invasion management. We found records for 497 non-native wild plant taxa, 53% of which are naturalized, while the rest are casual. This comprehensive inventory was based on field observations, published work, scientific reports, and online databases. It includes data on taxonomy, life form, lifespan, origin, first year record, and spatial-temporal distribution. The families with the highest number of non-native taxa growing spontaneously were Poaceae (16.2%), Asteraceae (9.8%), and Fabaceae (8.4%). Most non-native plant taxa in the wild (ca 60%) originated from Asia and/or Africa. Non-native flora in Ecuador is dominated by herbs (67%). First introductions are from the late 18th century, and they increased exponentially starting from 1915. Only 13% of the taxa have a minimum residence time of more than 125 years. The largest number of taxa were reported in the Andes region of Ecuador (94%, including taxa shared with other regions). We found documented uses in continental Ecuador for ca 80% of reported non-native taxa in the wild. The most commonly reported uses were ornamental (41%) and medical (39%). Our study revealed that naturalized taxa often have longer residence time and reported economic uses compared with casual ones, suggesting that both variables might influence the likelihood of the naturalization process. As some of the traits of non-native plants of Ecuador (low amount of non-native species, low percentage of casual plants relative to the naturalized ones, predominance of Asia and Africa as the main origins, or a total lack of archaeophytes) are shared with those of other megadiverse Neotropical countries, the results of this study provide valuable insights for the early detection, prioritization, and management of non-native plants not only for continental Ecuador but the whole region.
Keywords
checklist, first record, geographic origin, invasive alien plants, megadiverse country, Neotropic, pathways, residence time