Naturalisation of Ranunculus repens in Kashmir Himalaya: Floristic and Ecological aspects

Naturalisation is the most crucial stage along the ecological process of introduction-naturalisation-invasion continuum. Therefore, reporting the transition of alien plant species at the naturalised stage along the continuum can be crucial for the early warning and rapid response in invasion management. Here we report Ranunculus repens as a new distribution record from Kashmir Himalaya. We provide a floristic account of this newly naturalised species and photographic illustrations of the distinguishing characters from an allied species, R. bulbosus, with which it is misidentified in the region. We also investigated the ecological aspects of this naturalised species by undertaking quadrat sampling in the R. repens-dominated community. Our results revealed that R. repens show positive association with those native species in the community which possess similar traits, but show interestingly negative association with other alien species found within the same community, thus hinting towards habitat filtering among the alien species pool in the region. Hopefully, the present study will validate report of R. repens from this Himalayan region, facilitate its field identification, guide control strategies at this early stage of naturalisation when chances of management success are maximum and prompt further studies on its potential invasion risk.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2022.2036847.