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Alien flora of D.R. Congo: improving the checklist with digitised herbarium collections

  • Alien Floras and Faunas 12
  • Published:
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Abstract

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo) represents a striking gap of knowledge on alien plant species. In this paper, we use digitised herbarium collections to assemble a new checklist of alien plant species in D.R. Congo and to examine patterns in the alien flora. The new checklist comprises 436 alien species i.e., 189 (43%) casuals, 247 (57%) naturalised of which 80 (18% of aliens) are invasive. Discrepancies with previous databases are discussed. For many species in previous databases, all herbarium specimens come from cultivated specimens (e.g. botanic gardens) and we failed to find evidence for occurrence outside of cultivation. A total of 166 taxa were not included in previous lists, 41 of which are new records to the flora of D.R. Congo. Considering the size of the country and its rich native flora, the alien flora of D.R. Congo does not appear to be species-rich. The alien flora is particularly rich in Fabaceae (16%) and in annual species (37%). The Americas are by far the most important source continent (65%) and the proportion of annuals of American origin is particularly large among the most widespread species. 90% of invasive species are from the Americas. Invasive success is discussed in terms of residence time. The very low number of new species records after 1960 is similar to other African countries and could be due to decreasing sampling effort. The results illustrate how herbarium collections can be used to critically revise existing checklists of alien species in tropical Africa. Field work is urgently needed to improve coverage of recent introductions and to monitor the status of alien species, especially in protected areas and around botanic gardens.

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source continents (χ2obs = 40.93, d.f. = 10, P < 0.001)

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All data are available in Supplementary Information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Herbarium et bibliothèque de botanique africaine, Université libre de bruxelles, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, CP 265, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Farzaneh Bordbar

  2. Laboratoire d’Ecologie végétale et biogéochimie, Université libre de bruxelles, Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, CP 244, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Pierre J. Meerts

  3. Meise Botanic Garden, Nieuwelaan 38, 1860, Meise, Belgium

    Pierre J. Meerts

  4. Service Général de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Rue A. Lavallée 1, 1080, Brussels, Belgium

    Pierre J. Meerts

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FB assembled the checklist and analysed the data; PM designed the research, contributed to checklist validation, and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pierre J. Meerts.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10530_2021_2691_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx

S1: List of alien species, with their status in previous databases, number of voucher specimens, date of earliest and latest record, life form, continent of origin and proposed status.

Supplementary file1 (XLSX 49 kb)

10530_2021_2691_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

S2: Species in GRIIS and/or GLoNAF list, without herbarium specimens outside of cultivation. Literature reference supporting occurrence outside of cultivation is indicated.

Supplementary file2 (XLSX 22 kb)

10530_2021_2691_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

S3: Species in GRIIS and/or GloNAF list, without herbarium specimens outside of cultivation, with literature refuting occurrence outside cultivation, or without literature.

Supplementary file3 (XLSX 16 kb)

S4: Native species included in GRIIS and /or GloNAF, excluded from new checklist.

Supplementary file4 (XLSX 17 kb)

S5: Species in GRIIS and/or GloNAF databases, excluded from the alien flora of D.R. Congo.

Supplementary file5 (XLSX 13 kb)

10530_2021_2691_MOESM6_ESM.xlsx

S6: New records for the alien flora of D.R. Congo: Alien species not previously recorded outside of cultivation (APD, GBIF, GloNAF, GRIIS, ISC, POWO, Flore d'Afrique Centrale).

Supplementary file6 (XLSX 13 kb)

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Bordbar, F., Meerts, P.J. Alien flora of D.R. Congo: improving the checklist with digitised herbarium collections. Biol Invasions 24, 939–954 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02691-5

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