permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

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The Permaculturist's Bookmark: Weeds of the World Project
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Weeds of the World Project
http://ifs.plants.ox.ac.uk/wwd/wwd.htm

This bookmark is a good resource for permaculturists 
in several ways.  

1. 
It is a follow-up to the recent discussion on this permaculture 
list regarding native plants versus invasive exotic plants that 
disrupt vegetation patterns and negatively impact 
ecosystems. 

2. 
It contains a bibliography of 15 key books and reports 
on the whole topic of invasive exotics as noxious weeds, 
the ecology of non-indigenous plant species, et cetera.....many 
titles focus on Hawaii and Australia, but the following titles 
are noteworthy to North America. 

Reichard S.E. (1994) [Phd Thesis] Assessing the Potential 
of Invasiveness in Woody Plants Introduced to North America. 
University of Washington.

US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1993) Harmful 
Non-Indigenous Species in the United States, OTA-F-565. US 
Government Printing Office, Washington DC.

Weeds of the World Project:  Bibliography
http://ifs.plants.ox.ac.uk/wwd/bacon14.htm

3. 
It provides an extensive summary of existing or in-progress 
computer databases and software that are used to catalog 
information on weedy plants, regional flora, rare and endangered
species, et cetera.  Please note: the Weeds of the World Project 
contains an on-line template patterned after the Holm Database, 
but the actual database itself has yet to be funded. 

For computer-savvy permaculturists, it provides a nice
introduction to database formats and software that may be 
suitable for permaculture species lists, useful plants, plant 
characteristics, et cetera. 

Worldwide Databases and Communication Groups
http://ifs.plants.ox.ac.uk/wwd/bacon5.htm

4.
One of the driving forces behind the Weeds of the World Project 
is to provide knowledge on the effects of global climate change 
on plant distribution and invasive weeds.  

However, Dr Sarah Reichard's Phd thesis on "Assessing 
the Potential of Invasiveness in Woody Plants Introduced to 
North America" concluded that: 

  "it is very difficult to predict potential invasiveness 
   of a specific plant from its growth habit, and the 
   only good predictor of potential invasiveness is 
   a plants behaviour in habitats outside of its 
   indigenous ecosystem."

Appendix - List of Participants and Projects 
http://ifs.plants.ox.ac.uk/wwd/bacon15.htm
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Steve Diver
ATTRA 


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steved@ncatark.uark.edu