Native & Invasive Plant information
Florida Native Plant Society ~ The purpose of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida.
Florida's Native Plants ~ You simply can't argue with Mother Nature.
She's tested them time after time. Native plants have adapted to Florida's soil and weather, they have natural resistance to many of the tiny critters, and they provide food and shelter for our wildlife.
The Association of Florida Native Nurseries (AFNN) ~ is a not-for-profit corporation whose membership includes nurseries, landscape architects and designers, environmental consulting services, nursery suppliers, and individuals in related professions. AFNN members seek to improve conditions in the native plant nursery industy; to promote, foster, and encourage more efficient and progressive methods of growing and marketing native plant nursery stock and plants; to enjoy the manifold benefits of joint and collective effort; and to share in scientific knowledge.
Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council ~ The mission of the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council is to support the management of invasive exotic plants in Florida's natural areas by providing a forum for the exchange of scientific, educational and technical information. The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council is a non-profit organization and is not a regulatory agency.
University of Florida, IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants ~ Invasive, non-native plants can and do invade Florida's forests and wetlands. They replace native plant species and often form exotic monocultures (where nothing else grows). In many cases, these stands of exotic plants are not useful to the state's wildlife, which has evolved to depend on native plants for food and shelter. Only sometimes are native animals able to adapt to non-native plants. Should exotic plants replace too much of our native plants, those animals that are dependent on native plants will move away or even perish (become extirpated).
Because Floridians are interested in preserving the state's unique and beautiful flora and fauna, there is tremendous interest in identifying and controlling invasive non-native plants and animals before they grow and spread to have lasting effects.
Here are some of the invasive, non-native plants being studied at the University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants with support from the St. Johns River Water Management District:
Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) ~ Florida is particularly prone to biological invasions because of widespread disturbance of native habitats, its semi-tropical climate, its great expanse of waterways, and peninsular Florida's "island-like habitat" (bounded on three sides by water and the fourth by frost). As typified as are oceanic islands, south and central Florida have a naturally impoverished flora and fauna which predisposes these areas to great invasibility. Approximately 1.7 million acres of Florida's remaining natural areas have been invaded by nonindigenous plant species. These non-native plant invasions have degraded and diminished what remains of Florida's natural areas.