Catalogue of Invasive Exotic Plants

Invasive exotic plants are plants artificially introduced from their natural geographic range into a new area where they expand both their population and distribution range, significantly changing the structure and function of the new system. There are nearly 200 species of invasive exotic plants in Virginia, 80 of which botanists believe survive on the University of Richmond campus. As part of a project launched by Bethany Shewmaker and Dr. W. John Hayden, students and faculty located the species on campus, documented their location, compared the location to their preferred habitats in their geographic ranges and evaluated their threats to ecological systems and their degree of invasiveness. This information was incorporated into an online catalogue that is now available for students studying botany at Richmond.