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The Role Of Environmental Analogs In Identifying Potentially Invasive Woody Plants In Iowa, Mark P. Widrlechner

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Americans cultivate a large and diverse range of introduced woody plants as important sources of food and forest products, as well as for urban horticulture, amenity and wildlife plantings, and windbreaks. A small number of these species have become serious pests, disrupting well-established native plant communities or functioning as range and agricultural weeds. More of these species are not serious pests today, but have escaped cultivation and serve as potential sources of future outbreaks. Two other sources of potentially invasive woody plants are found among species that are not or are only rarely cultivated, about which we often know little …