EXO BCN 2
Spread to natural environment of the most planted alien plants in the green areas in Barcelona
In 2011, the Barcelona City Council commissioned CREAF to carry out an initial analysis of the risk of expansion in the natural environment of the most planted invasive ornamental plants in parks and gardens in Barcelona, which has served as a basis for the development of Weed Risk Analysis (WRA) on alien plants of the city.
This analysis was carried out within the framework of an agreement between CREAF and the City Council of Barcelona (years 2014 and 2015). The resulting study analyzed a total of 336 plants and shows that most of them (65%) can be classified as potentially invasive. This underlines the need to expand this first study to refine the classification of these species. It should be noted that the WRA index has been developed for native species, and many of the questions it includes are not easy to answer for ornamental species because often there is not enough information available.
The present project aims to refine the analysis of the invasive potential of the most planted ornamental plants in the gardens of Barcelona, evaluating its expansion in the natural environment. This task has been carried out through field surveys along the natural areas surrounding the first metropolitan crown of Barcelona
