What Makes Plants Invasive? A Look at Differences and Variability

Scientists have been trying to figure out what makes some alien plants become invasive, often comparing successful invaders with other groups. But, not much attention has been given to how these traits vary among invaders. Here, researchers took a fresh approach. They studied both the differences in traits between invasive and non-invasive plants and the variety of these traits within both groups. The team looked at 1402 native, non-woody plants from Austria. They found that aspects like being competitive, using certain habitats, and having more seeds were linked to invasiveness. However, even the best models only explained a part of why some plants are more successful invaders. Interestingly, the traits of invasive plants were more varied compared to non-invasive ones. This suggests that invasive success might depend a lot on specific situations and could be hard to predict just from traits. So, using trait profiles to assess risk might still have big uncertainties.