When does a plant or animal brought here from overseas start being considered native? Kudzu has been growing in America since before my ancestors can't here, am I still considered invasive based on the history of Europeans invading this continent?
"Non native species" is not the same term as "invasive". Lets imagine that the letter H in your black keyboard falls off. If you replace it by a blue key from other keyboard you end basically with a functional keyboard. Sometimes non native species fill a empty spot and restore a lost system functionality without affecting the other species. Sometimes they even boost the whole machine. A good example would be a native tree from the forests of Kazakhstan that is everywhere, the domestic apple tree.
Invasive species would be like replacing all the keys in your keyboard with the letter H. They turn the machine basically useless. Instead to work with the ecosystem, they destroy it, eliminate most species, and replace it by a much cheaper version. A worse system that is more simple, less stable, and has barely the minimum functionality for us to survive
> Invasive species would be like replacing all the keys in your keyboard with the letter H. They turn the machine basically useless. Instead to work with the ecosystem, they destroy it, eliminate most species, and replace it by a much cheaper version. A worse system that is more simple, less stable, and has barely the minimum functionality for us to survive
I guess this would also put humans at the top of the list of invasive species? That sure did sound a lot like what we have done over or history, unfortunately
Often non native species are just sitting there. Not being leveraged by the ecosystem because it don’t know what to do with it.
Most of the species in my garden are non-native (another term that is often used for less virulent invasives), but they don't colonize the native landscape. The term "invasive" is sometimes used for plants that could otherwise be fine, but will get out of hand in some cases. Bamboo, for instance.
Source: none, but I used to take care of shrubbery for one of my first jobs and I learned a lot about invasives. I hated Brazilian pepper trees the most ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schinus_terebinthifolia ), mainly because they're quite difficult to remove.
Which honestly describes humans pretty much everywhere…
> Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
We also have a species of tree called the princess tree. Most consider it invasive because it grows and propogates so quickly, it's originally from Asia if I'm not mistaken. Personally I really like it and have transplanted a few into our posture for fast shade growth and hope to harvest it for wood in 8-10 years.