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Floristic diversity and correlates of naturalization of alien flora in urban green spaces of Srinagar city

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Abstract

The sustainable management of green spaces in cities is crucial in achieving the challenging goal of urban sustainability. The common practice of cultivation of alien plants in urban green spaces is often associated with risk of naturalisation (i.e. escape into wild), which can have sometime adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. To mitigate these risks, understanding patterns and processes of naturalisation of alien flora in urban green spaces becomes crucial. Here we report the floristic diversity of alien flora and correlates of its naturalisation in the green spaces of Srinagar city – one of the largest urban centres in the Himalaya. We documented 342 plant species belonging to 66 families from the green spaces of Srinagar, predominantly represented by 245 alien species (72%). Among the alien species pool, 133 species (54%) are exclusively under cultivation (non-escapes) and 112 species (46%) grow in the wild (cultivation escapes and accidentally introduced species); and of the latter, 51 were naturalised, 39 casual and 22 invasive. The cultivated alien species escaped into the wild belong to 27 families, and most prominently to the Asteraceae. Habitat-wise, plant dumping sites in the green spaces constituted the most dominant habitat of cultivation escapes. A significant relationship was revealed between the proportion of aliens under cultivation and species traits such as growth form, life span and residence time; and plant species with herbaceous growth form, annual life span and relatively longer residence time showed higher proportion of naturalisation. We found a significant correlation between abundance of the cultivation escapes and residence time (r = 0.507). The present study has generated policy-relevant data on urban green spaces of Srinagar, which can support policy regulations to steer the sustainable development of this rapidly urbanising Himalayan city.

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Acknowledgments

We are highly thankful to the Honorary Director, Centre for Biodiversity & Taxonomy (CBT), Department of Botany, University of Kashmir for providing necessary facilities during the course of present study. The help provided by staff and gardeners of Department of Floriculture Kashmir is greatly acknowledged. In addition, we thank Jahangeer A. Parry, Department of Geography, University of Kashmir for his help in preparation of the map of study area. We are highly thankful to the Associate Editor, Gail Langellotto and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and expert suggestions, which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Centre for Biodiversity & Taxonomy, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Gousia Mehraj, Anzar A. Khuroo, Maroof Hamid, Insha Muzafar & Akhtar H. Malik

  2. Biological Invasions Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Irfan Rashid

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  1. Gousia Mehraj
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Contributions

AAK and IR conceived the research idea; GM and IM collected the field data; GM and MH analyzed the data; AAK and AHM identified the plants; GM and AAK wrote the first draft of the manuscript; all authors reviewed the draft manuscript and agreed to its submission; AAK and GM led the three rounds of revisions with approval from all the authors.

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Correspondence to Anzar A. Khuroo.

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Mehraj, G., Khuroo, A.A., Hamid, M. et al. Floristic diversity and correlates of naturalization of alien flora in urban green spaces of Srinagar city. Urban Ecosyst 24, 1231–1244 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01105-7

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