Naturalized see more plants may become invasive in new habitats only when they produce adequate reproductive off-spring (Richardson et al. 2000; Pyšek et al. 2004). Compilation of comprehensive lists of the naturalized species list for a given country, and comparative studies of naturalized floras in different regions, have proved to be a useful approach to understanding taxonomic patterns of plant invasion (Pyšek et al. 2004; Khuroo et al. 2007) and are the first steps towards developing management strategies for invasive species. China is the world’s third largest country with a total area of 9.6 million km2 and encompassing a wide range of habitats and environmental conditions (Xie

et al. 2001). The estimated annual economic loss in China due to invasive alien species may amount to US$ 15 billion (Xu et al. 2006a). RG-7388 chemical structure The problem of invasive alien species in China has been discussed by a number of authors with emphasis on harmful invasive plants (e.g., Ding and Wang 1998; Qiang and Cao 2000; Li and Xie 2002; Liu et al. 2005; Xu et al. 2006b; Liu et al. 2006; Ding learn more et al. 2008; Weber et al. 2008; Huang et al. 2009; Feng and Zhu 2010). A number of regional lists of naturalized plants have been compiled, e.g., for Shandong (Wu et al.

2006), Guangzhou (Yan et al. 2007), Hong Kong (Corlett 1992, Ng and Corlett 2002), Macau (Wang et al. 2004), and Taiwan (Wu et al. 2004a, b, 2010b). Most recently, a list of 420 naturalized plant species occurring in mainland China was compiled by Wu et al. (2010a). This provided an important advance, while nationwide documentation of naturalized plants in China is still lacking. Considering that the naturalized floras of many countries or continents have been well documented, e.g., Europe (Weber 1997; Lambdon et al. 2008), Mexico (Villaseñor and Espinosa-Garcia 2004), Kashmir Himalaya (Khuroo et al. 2007),

North Africa (Vilà et al. 1999), Austria (Rabitsch and Essl 2006), and Singapore (Corlett 1988), comprehensive documentation of naturalized DNA ligase alien species in China therefore stands to provide an important data set for comparative studies of alien floras, and offer new insights to our understanding of global patterns of plant invasions. In this light, our main objective in the present study is to compile a database of naturalized plants in China. Based on this compilation, we then address the four specific questions: (1) What is the current prevalence of naturalized plants in China? (2) Is there a taxonomic pattern? (3) Where did these species originate? and (4) Are there life form and habit characters associated with plant invasion? We hope that this effort will contribute towards offering insightful perspectives and information for further regional or global studies of plant invasion.