Invasive Species as Rivals: Invasive Potential and Distribution Pattern of Xanthium strumarium L.

Abstract

Xanthium strumarium L. is a globally successful invasive herb that has had significant negative ecological, economic and social impacts in many world regions. The present study was therefore conducted to evaluate the invasive potential and spatial distribution patterns of X. strumarium in heavily invaded plant communities of the semiarid regions of northern Pakistan. Investigations were based on data from 20 plants grown in the Herbarium at the University of Malakand, and from observations in 450 plots distributed across 45 stands representing habitats across Northern Province including open fields, hillocks and abandoned areas in both urban and rural areas. Multivariate analysis identified elevation, organic matter and organic carbon as the environmental variables most associated with communities invaded by X. strumarium. Increased soil silt was positively associated and available water was negatively associated with X. strumarium–invaded communities. These key environmental characteristics allowed us to identify four main associations: Group I: X. strumarium-C. sativa, Group II: X. strumarium-P. hysterophorus, Group III: X. strumarium-A. aspera and Group IV: X. strumarium-C. sativa. Other invasive species were observed, either exotic, such as P. hysterophorus, or indigenous, such as C. sativa and D. inoxia, often co-occurring and responding similarly to these factors. The results suggest that high temperature with drought stress could be a determinant of increasing population at lower elevations, whereas colder climates with adequate moisture are related to reduced populations at higher elevations, near the species’ upper range limits. It is recommend that the inclusion of appropriate, additional soil and climatic variables in species distribution models be implemented in order to better explain species’ ecological niches and help guide conservation and protection plans for native plant communities.

Direct and indirect targets of carboxyatractyloside, including overlooked toxicity toward nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) and mitochondrial H + leak

“… 2021 ; Ullah, Khan, Hewitt, et al. 2022 ). A possible explanation is that CATR is not transiently detectable in older plants without burs containing achenes, i.e., from the four-leaf stage onward (Cole et al.…”

“… 2022 ; Ullah, Khan, Hewitt, et al. 2022 ). Smaller fruit, whose seed may take years to start sprouting, is often referred to as ‘upper' fruit when it is located slightly above the ‘lower' fruit in the locule of the bur (Cutler and Cole 1983 ; Weaver and Lechowicz 1983 ; Amini et al.…”

“… 2021 ; Shkondrov et al. 2021 ; Ullah, Khan, Ali, et al 2021 ; Ullah, Khan, and Rahman 2021 ; CABI 2022 ; Jepson Flora Project 2022 ; Ullah, Khan, and Ali 2022 ; Ullah, Khan, Hewitt, et al 2022 ; WCVP 2022 ; WFO 2022 ). Alternatively, the use of X. strumarium as a medicine could have been invented by our ancestors independently/simultaneously in Europe, America, and Asia.…”

“…2022 ; Ullah, Khan, Hewitt, et al. 2022 ). Therefore, the terminology for the Xanthium genus and the terms for some parts of plants included in this genus must be unified as soon as possible.…”

“… 2005 ; Tomasello 2018 ; Noedoost et al. 2021 ; Ullah, Khan, Ali, et al 2021 ; Ullah, Khan, and Rahman 2021 ; Jepson Flora Project 2022 ; Ullah, Khan, and Ali 2022 ; Ullah, Khan, Hewitt, et al 2022 ). In fact, the bur is the fruit pod developed from fused involucre in which bract tips are transformed into spines, and the bur derives from fruiting, thus the female (pistillate) flower head (capitulum).…”