PRE Pairing for Success: Emerging Invasives, Contentious Cultivars and Finding Common Ground
Garden Partners include: Atlanta Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas
50 plants to evaluate in each region, for a total of 200 assessments
* 20 to 25 landscape plants of significant economic impact grown and/or sold in region.
* 10 to 20 of the most contentious cultivars in the region.
* 15 plants of common concern (as potential or known invasive risk) in multiple states (for national comparison).
Questions we aim to answer over the course of this project include:
- How does PRE (tool + process) advance substantive collaboration among horticultural stakeholders which results in better plants being promoted and fewer invasive plant risks?
- For taxa evaluated in 2 or more states, how do state assessment ratings compare?
- For taxa rated as "Evaluate Further", did missing biological information contribute to the assessment outcome; and if so, then what kind of information would be needed to answer more questions? Would this resolve the outcome to either Low Risk or High Risk? For PRE purposes, would “Moderate Risk” be a more appropriate term than "Evaluate Further"?
- How does the PRE model work for cultivars? Describe strengths and/or shortcomings? Can PRE be improved to handle unique aspects of cultivars, or any non-native plants new to the marketplace (and science), with very little information about their behavior on the landscape?
- Which of the taxa evaluated are predicted to have a high risk of invasiveness in the state? Which are predicted to have a low risk of invasiveness? Following stakeholder review, which taxa could be considered invasive risk priorities in the state, if not considered "emerging invasives?"