Journal of Rangeland

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Researches related to invasive plant ecology has recently increased, hence the terminology used in the early studies can later be perused by other researchers. Incorrect use of the term "invasive species" instead of "non-invasive species" may lead to environmental consequences and threatens the biodiversity and life of endangered species. Therefore, in this study, terminology and applicability of invasive species that is frequently used by Iranian researchers were compared with those of the international standards. Thirty-three papers of Iranian researchers that had used the term of invasive plants were surveyed. Then chorotype and the origin of each plant species were studied. Accordingly, we found that 154 native plant species of Iran had erroneously been identified as invasive species. Among them, 34% had used the term invasive species instead of non-palatable species also 24, 18, 27 percent had respectively been used instead of weed, toxic, ephemeral and ruderal plants. All of these species should be classified as native species according to the international standards. Results of this study can be used as a framework for terminology and applicability of invasive plant species in the Iranian literature, and prevent further nomination of native species as the invasive plants. This study broadens the current knowledge of biological invasion in Iran and can be considered as a unified framework for Iranian researchers to prevent the current mistakes.

Keywords: Biological invasion, invasive species, invasion concept, Iranian research

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