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\"When the oral history of a medicinal plant as a genetic resource is used to develop a blockbuster drug, how is the contribution of indigenous peoples recognized in research and commercialization? What other ethical, legal, and policy issues come into play? Is it accurate for countries to self-identify as users or providers of genetic resources? This edited collection, which focuses on Canada, is the result of research conducted in partnership with indigenous peoples in that country, where melting permafrost and new sea lanes have opened the region's biodiversity, underscoring Canada's status as a user and provider of genetic resources and associated indigenous knowledge\"-- Provided by publisher.

The New Zealand flora has a high proportion of endemic species but has been invaded by almost the same number of non-native plant species. To support management of invasive plant species, we provide an updated inventory of New Zealand’s naturalised flora and compare it with the native flora to identify key taxonomic and functional distinctions. We also assess how the naturalised flora may impact ecosystem processes differently than the native flora using functional traits related to plant resource use strategy. The 1798 species in the naturalised flora currently comprise 43.9% of the total number of vascular plant species, and add 67 plant families and 649 genera to the total vascular flora. The naturalised flora has a greater proportion of herbaceous species and annual species than the native flora, which could influence ecosystem processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. Naturalised trees have higher leaf nitrogen concentration for a given leaf area than native trees, which could increase rates of nutrient cycling in invaded forest ecosystems. A greater number of naturalised species are present in larger, more northerly, and more populated regions of New Zealand. Our results demonstrate both taxonomic and functional differences between the native and naturalised flora of New Zealand that can be used to guide management of naturalised plants, including the 314 species currently managed as environmental weeds, from the local to national scale.

\"More than five hundred years after the fact, present-day writers still use hyperbolic adjectives to describe the \"discovery\" of the Americas. Columbus's crossing of the Atlantic--and the age of exploration that ensued--dramatically and forever changed the early modern world. The societies, economies, cultures, arts, and burgeoning sciences of Europe were quickly transformed by the ongoing encounter with the New World. The meeting of the New and the Old Worlds, however, was more than a meeting of disparate civilizations. It was also a confluence of exciting and often surprising associations that continually created new interfaces between materials and knowledge. The Western and Eastern Hemispheres, brought together by sailing ships for the first time on a large scale, helped create the global landscape we take for granted today. Central to this formative moment in global history were New World plants. The agriculture of indigenous peoples mythically and materially shaped English society and, subsequently, its literature in new and startling ways. Sacred Seeds examines New World plants--tobacco, amaranth, guaiacum, and the prickly pear cactus--and their associated Native myths as they moved across the Atlantic and into English literature. Edward McLean Test reinstates the contributions of indigenous peoples to European society, charting an alternative cultural history that explores the associations and assemblages of transatlantic multiplicity rather than Eurocentric homogeny\"-- Provided by publisher.

Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) is native to tropical America and has been introduced into many other countries as an ornamental and hedge plant. The species has been spreading quickly and has naturalized in more than 60 countries as an invasive noxious weed. It is considered to be one of the world’s 100 worst alien species. L. camara often forms dense monospecies stands through the interruption of the regeneration process of indigenous plant species. Allelopathy of L. camara has been reported to play a crucial role in its invasiveness. The extracts, essential oil, leachates, residues, and rhizosphere soil of L. camara suppressed the germination and growth of other plant species. Several allelochemicals, such as phenolic compounds, sesquiterpenes, triterpenes, and a flavonoid, were identified in the extracts, essential oil, residues, and rhizosphere soil of L. camara. The evidence also suggests that some of those allelochemicals in L. camara are probably released into the rhizosphere soil under the canopy and neighboring environments during the decomposition process of the residues and as leachates and volatile compounds from living plant parts of L. camara. The released allelochemicals may suppress the regeneration process of indigenous plant species by decreasing their germination and seedling growth and increasing their mortality. Therefore, the allelopathic property of L. camara may support its invasive potential and formation of dense monospecies stands.

This research purpose was focused to document the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge (TEK) associated with important wild plants and indigenous communities residing in mountainous zone of District Sudhnoti of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and to determine their conservation status with suggestions and recommendations to protect and propagate the rare and endangered wild flora of the area for sustainable use. The data regarding traditional ethnomedicines (TEMs) and phytogeography with conservation analysis of wild plants were collected via structured and semi structured interviews of 150 participants belonging to various professions and of both genders. Prior consent and permission were obtained from family heads and from all the participants, and the data were shared with all the informants through the local female translator guide. To validate the collected data, various microstatistical tools, such as the informant consensus factor (ICF), fidelity level (FL) and data matrix ranking (DMR) were used. The relative frequency of citations (RFC) and rank order of popularity (ROP) were also calculated to determine and authenticate the relative importance of TEMs which may be further studied in future research and used for drug discovery. In the present study, 150 locally important plants belonging to 69 families were documented, and the Rosaceae was the most dominant and prevalent family. The results indicated that many locally important plants have multiple uses such as food, medicine, fodder, shelter, ornamental and fuel. The TEMs obtained from these plants have been known to be useful for curing various infirmities such as flu, renal disorders, fever, malaria, cough, migraine, whooping cough, influenza, skin rashes, allergies, stomach aches, wounds and bruises, diabetes, tumours and joint pains. The ICF analysis revealed that renal calculus, malaria, fever, whooping cough, rheumatoid arthritis and arthritis were prevalent infirmities of the mountainous area. The FL analysis indicated the popularity of these plants used in various TEMs and among these Artemisia maritima and Berberis lycium were the most common. The DMR indicated that Pinus roxburghii was the most common species being used for multipurpose by the indigenous communities. The highest use value index was found for Indigofera linifolia . The relative frequency of citations was calculated to determine the importance of plants in traditional ethnomedicine, highlighting Morus nigra , Pinus wallichiana , and Rosa indica as significant species. The Jaccard index indicated a high level of novelty in the research which can be exploited for neo-drug discovery and drug development. In conclusion, this study has successfully documented the ethnobotanically and ethnomedicinally important plants in District Sudhnoti, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. The findings of this research contribute to the preservation and documentation of cultural heritage, as well as provide a foundation for further studies in ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology and biodiversity conservation efforts for sustainable provision of wild flora to the indigenous communities which will also assist in combating drasting climatic changes.

Air pollution is a global environmental issue, and there is an urgent need for sustainable remediation techniques. Thus, phytoremediation has become a popular approach to air pollution remediation. This paper reviewed 28 eco-friendly indigenous plants based on both the air pollution tolerance index (APTI) and anticipated performance index (API), using tolerance level and performance indices to evaluate the potential of most indigenous plant species for air pollution control. The estimated APTI ranged from 4.79 (Syzygium malaccense) to 31.75 (Psidium guajava) among the studied indigenous plants. One of the selected plants is tolerant, and seven (7) are intermediate to air pollution with their APTI in the following order: Psidium guajava (31.75) > Swietenia mahogany (28.08) > Mangifera indica L. (27.97) > Ficus infectoria L. (23.93) > Ficus religiosa L. (21.62) > Zizyphus Oenoplia Mill (20.06) > Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (19.01) > Ficus benghalensis L. (18.65). Additionally, the API value indicated that Mangifera indica L. ranges from best to good performer; Ficus religiosa L. and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. from excellent to moderate performers; and Cassia fistula L. from poor to very poor performer for air pollution remediation. The Pearson correlation shows that there is a positive correlation between API and APTI (R2 = 0.63), and this implies that an increase in APTI increases the API and vice versa. This paper shows that Mangifera indica L., Ficus religiosa L., and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. have good potential for sustainable reduction in air pollution for long-term management and green ecomanagement development.

Thai edible indigenous vegetables are used as traditional food and folklore medicines. This review aims to integrate consumption culture and functional health impact of eight edible plants, that are, Gnetum gnemon var. tenerum, Gymnema inodorum (Lour) Decne, Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth, Melientha suavis Pierre, Sauropus androgynus, Glochidion wallichianum, Piper sarmentosum Roxb, and Basella alba L., which are commonly consumed by local Thai people. Reviews of all eight mentioned plants demonstrated essential pharmacological activity, including antioxidant activity, and health functions, such as antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antihypertensive, antimicrobial, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory usage; they also help prevent neurotransmitters from degrading. However, comprehensive animal tests and clinical trials are needed to further clarify the results to increase utilization and safety as well as commercialization of these plants.

Grassland degradation is a critical ecological problem worldwide that threatens ecosystem integrity and functional services. Although previous studies have documented the drivers of climate change, overgrazing, and anthropogenic perturbation, research concerning the impact of invasive alien plants on grassland ecosystems remains limited. The present study, integrating pairwise field investigation of Ageratina adenophora invasion and non-invasion plots across heterogeneous grassland types (tropical grasslands [TG]; tropical shrub-grasslands [TS]; warm-temperate grasslands [WG]; and warm-temperate shrub-grasslands [WS]) and A. adenophora indigenous plants phytotoxicity bioassay, aims to assess the invasibility and resilience of heterogeneous grassland landscapes to A. adenophora invasion. The field investigation demonstrated the greater vulnerability of TG and TS to A. adenophora invasion, whereas WG and WS possessed higher resilience. In addition, regression analysis revealed significant reductions of the Shannon–Wiener index and the Pielou index as the A. adenophora’s important value reached the threshold 0.36. Bioassay showed that A. adenophora aqueous extracts inhibit seed germination and seedling growth of recipient plants, with Saccharum arundinaceum exhibiting the highest tolerance to A. adenophora stress. In summary, our findings not only highlight the flora communities’ dynamics and invasibility of diverse grasslands driven by A. adenophora invasion in subtropical regions but also verify S. arundinaceum’s potential for A. adenophora replacement management.

1. The search for characteristics that promote invasion success constitutes one of the most challenging tasks in invasion ecology. So far the main focus in multispecies studies of plant invasion success has been on single traits. Only few generalizations have emerged from this work and single traits yielded very limited explanatory power for invasion success. Here we hypothesize that the consideration of ecological strategies, determined by different combinations of traits, will improve explanatory power. 2. To test this hypothesis we analysed the relative importance of 40 traits for species' invasion success in the German neophytic flora. Success was expressed as map grid cell frequency. After quantifying the relevance of single traits, we quantified the importance of different trait combinations for invasion success by calculating a multiple trait model, with explicit consideration of trait interactions. In all analyses we considered the effects of phylogeny. 3. In general, neither single traits nor phylogenetic relatedness held much explanatory power. In contrast, the amount of variation explained in the multiple trait model was distinctly higher, mainly due to the incorporation of trait interactions. Thus, particular combinations of trait attributes rather than distinctive attributes per se appear to be associated with invasion success. 4. In single trait analysis, traits associated with flowering and reproductive biology, and with ecological tolerance and the residence time of the species were significantly associated with invasion success. Multiple trait analysis revealed that the relationship between the length of flowering season and invasion success was contingent upon pollination modes. Moreover, the success of polyploids and of species with certain vegetative reproductive trait attributes depended on the species' flowering phenology. 5. Synthesis. Our results indicate that different ecological strategies, determined by particular combinations of traits, can facilitate plant invasion success. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating trait interactions when testing for characteristics that promote plant invasion success. Improved explanatory power of traits suggests that our new approach can provide an important step forward in the risk assessment and management of new arrivals in regional floras.

This study evaluated the hyperaccumulation potential of four indigenous plant species: Chromolaena ordorata (CO), Paspalum viginatum (PV), Chrysopogon zizanioides (CZ) and Cynodon dactylon (CD) using soil polluted by the illegal gold mining activities. Nine treatments were used in this study: Control, CO, CZ, PV, CD, CO+PV, CO+CD, CZ+PV and CZ+CD samples. The soils’ physico-chemical properties and the concentration of some selected heavy metals and metalloid (As, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb) were determined. Plant growth and dynamics of pH, electrical conductivity and heavy metals and metalloid in the gold ore mined soil were monitored for nine weeks. Accumulation, bioaccumulation and translocation potentials were determined. The mined soil was loamy textured and acidic with pH ranging between 5.71 and 6.24. Soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and phosphorous contents were relatively low (0.21 %, 0.09 % and 4.79 mg/kg soil, respectively). Concentrations of Pb, Cu, Ni, As and Cd (40.22, 30.54, 23.58, 6.18 and 0.27 mg/kg, respectively) in the area were below the WHO permissible limits. CO+PV combination resulted in higher reductions in As, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb (40.1, 53.1, 36.8, 29.3 and 41.2%, respectively) from the mined soil. All the investigated plant species recorded BR > 1 for Cd and BR < 1 for As, Cu, Ni and Pb. Therefore, all studied plant species are good phytoextractors for Cd.