BARBARA TOKARSKA-GUZIK

University of Silesia,
Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Plant Systematics;
Jagiellońska 28, 40-032 Katowice
e-mail: barabara.tokarska-guzik@us.edu.pl

Description popularizing the research project

Traditional Polish hospitality tells to open the door for the weary visitors. It tells to prepare the bed for, feed them and let them stay until they are ready to move on. When the visitor is nice the command of hospitality turns from a duty into pleasure.
It is worse when the unwanted visitors feel at home. They are not tired, but they do not intend to leave and all the signs show they are going to set roots here. What else can we expect from kenophytes? Kenophytes are alien plants. They travel using different means of transport: by air, water and land, with or without assistance, sometimes they are even invited by gardeners themselves. Where they come and find suitable conditions, they stay. It is not a problem if they find a suitable niche and do not affect equilibrium of the ecosystem. It is much worse if it drives the native species, outgrowing them, overshadowing them and spreading their rootstocks and stolons in all directions.
There are over a hundred such visitors in Polish flora. Some are invasive endangering natural composition of plant communities, others are peaceful. Should we exterminate them? Botany is helpless. The fiercest invaders are impossible to fight, having been uprooted or mowed they immediately grow back. Native herbivores do not like them as they are not used to the exotic dishes. They have not brought their own natural enemies and pests, what we should be grateful for. They are unpunished and seem to be totally beyond our control.
Species migrate, both animals and plants. The results of introducing alien species may be pitiful, as we learn from the case of Australian rabbits. Nevertheless that is the strength of species - they do not let us get them uprooted. Especially if they have just managed to entangle the gutter with their roots.

Abstract

The subject of the project falls within the theme of the synathropisation of the vegetation cover. Connected representations of this directional process occurring on Earth under the impact of various forms of human activities, are the processes of the extinction of some species and the expansion of others, which have both accelerated in recent centuries and which are contributing to changes of the biological diversity of entire regions, countries or continents.
The objective of this study was to summarise the research carried out on the development of the flora of kenophytes within the territory of Poland and to synthetise relevant knowledge available to date. The intention of the author was also to describe the history and directions of studies concerning the newest synanthropic newcomers established in Poland (kenophytes=neophytes), and to provide reference to the most important studies and special topics undertaken by Polish botanists, whose work constitutes a permanent contribution to the achievements of biogeographic sciences.
The result of this attempt is a new list of this group of species, considerably broader than that which could be found in earlier works and augmented by the inclusion of the ecological and geographical characteristics of the species. Researching historical sources ('old' flora, herbarium documentation) has allowed to verify and detremine the first floristic records of particular species of Polish kenophytes. An attempt was also made to reconstruct the periods where the influx and spread of kenophytes were the most intense, relating these to historical and geographical factors.
For a selected group of 25 species the history of their spread in Poland has been reconstructed in detail. Detailed data on the distribution of 174 species of kenophytes has been used to represent the typology of their ranges within Poland's borders, augmented by a discussion on the principal factors influencing the formation of their ranges. Many distribution maps have been augmented and five new maps have been developed. Another reconstruction effort had the aim at finding changes in the ranges of kenophytes, with the elucidation of possible migration routes. The dynamic trends among kenophytes have also been discussed vis-a`-vis the factors helping them acquire various types of habitats. From the list of kenophytes, invasive species have been identified (a list of invasive kenophytes for Poland has been proposed), opening wider discussion on the criteria adopted for their selection, and indicating those regions of Poland threatened by invasion.