Chandrakiran Rathod, Rupali P. Shirsat and Dipak Koche
Abstract
Along with anthropogenic activities, invasive alien species have done a major damage to native plant diversity. The present study is a comprehensive report on invasive alien species from Katepurna Wildlife Sanctuary (Maharashtra) India. A total of 93 invasive plant species belonging to 36 angiosperm families and 76 Genera are identified from the study area. More than 80%of alien species recorded are native to tropical America. The study also reported that most of the plants were unintentionally introduced in this region and then naturalized during the course of evolution. Of the recorded species, 72 % species were herbs, 15% species were shrubs, 4% species were trees and 9% species were climbers. The present study showed 26% of species from the study area were noxious, 11% of species were interfering and 63% of species were naturalized. These introduced alien species are found to gradually replacing the original local flora and hence this issue must be addressed on a priority basis.