A complete list of all alien taxa ever recorded in the flora of
the Czech Republic is presented as an update of the original
checklist published in 2002. New data accumulated in the last
decade are incorporated and the listing and status of some taxa
are reassessed based on improved knowledge. Alien flora of the
Czech Republic consists of 1454 taxa listed with information on
their taxonomic position, life history, geographic origin (or
mode of origin, distinguishing anecophyte and hybrid), invasive
status (casual; naturalized but not invasive; invasive),
residence time status (archaeophyte vs neophyte), mode of
introduction into the country (accidental, deliberate), and
date of the first record. Additional information on species
performance that was not part of the previous catalogue, i.e.
on the width of species’ habitat niches, their dominance in
invaded communities, and impact, is provided. The Czech alien
flora consists of 350 (24.1%) archaeophytes and 1104 (75.9%)
neophytes. The increase in the total number of taxa compared to
the previous catalogue (1378) is due to addition of 151 taxa
and removal of 75 (39 archaeophytes and 36 neophytes),
important part of the latter being the reclassification of 41
taxa as native, mostly based on archaeobotanical evidence. The
additions represent taxa newly recorded since 2002 and reported
in the national literature; taxa resulting from investigation
of sources omitted while preparing the previous catalogue;
redetermination of previously reported taxa; reassessment of
some taxa traditionally considered native for which the
evidence suggests the opposite; and inclusion of intraspecific
taxa previously not recognized in the flora. There are 44 taxa
on the list that are reported in the present study for the
first time as aliens introduced to the Czech Republic or
escaped from cultivation.

Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (2nd edition): checklist update, taxonomic diversity and invasion patterns

/pdf/catalogue-of-alien-plants-of-the-czech-republic-3rd-edition-1qup56n8.pdf

Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (3rd edition)

The article reviews the available information on the start of fruit tree cultivation in the Old World. On the basis of (i) evaluation of the available archeological remains and (ii) examination of the wild relatives of the cultivated crops, it was concluded that olive, grape, date, and fig were the first important horticultural additions to the Mediterranean grain agriculture. They were most likely domesticated in the Near East in protohistoric time (fourth and third millennia B.C.) and they emerge as important food elements in the early Bronze Age. Domestication of all four fruit trees was based on a shift from sexual reproduction (in the wild) to vegetative propagation of clones (under domestication). Olive, grape, date, and fig can be vegetatively propagated by simple techniques (cuttings, basal knobs, suckers) and were thus preadapted for domestication early in the development of agriculture. The shift to clonal propagation placed serious limitations on selection and on fruit set under cultivation. We have examined the consequences of this shift in terms of the genetic makeup of the cultivars and traced the various countermeasures that evolved to ensure fruit set. Finally, it was pointed out that in each of these classic fruit trees we are confronted with a variable complex of genuinely wild types, secondary weedy derivatives and feral plants, and groups of the domesticated clones, which are all interfertile and interconnected by occasional hybridization. It was concluded that introgression from the diversified wild gene pool facilitated the rapid buildup of variation in the domesticated crops.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/187/4174/319.full.pdf

Beginnings of fruit growing in the old world.

The role of biodiversity for element cycling and trophic interactions: an experimental approach in a grassland community

The Ecological Flora Database contains information on the ecology of British gymnosperms and angiosperms. The methods used to collect data and the structure of the database are described. The database can be used to retrieve information about a particular species or ecological characteristic and also to ask comparative questions of the data. Two examples are given: the first concerns the stomatal distribution of species which are favoured by different levels of habitat shade; and the second concerns the geographical range of species which reproduce by seed, vegetatively or by both. Species growing in habitats with little or no shade tend to have stomata distributed over both leaf surfaces, whereas those living in shaded habitats have the majority of stomata on the lower epidermis (...)

K. H. Rechinger

Papers

Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa

Flora of lowland Iraq