Extreme environments as reservoirs of invasive plants: the case of the garbage dump in Huehuetlan El Grande, Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

The study aimed to highlight the role of extreme environments (so-called because of the high accumulation of nutrients and other harmful products) as sites of reservoirs of invasive plants, taking as an example the community "dump" of the municipal seat of Huehuetlan el Grande, Puebla, Mexico. The results show that 56 species belonging to 52 genera and 25 families were found; the families with the highest number of species were Asteraceae and Solanaceae. The species found are from 30 different countries, being America and Ecuador with a greater number of records. According to the origin of sites, use, industrial possibilities and, if they are wild or cultivated species, it was found that there were 14 species on the roadside: 11 weeds, 9 cultivated, 8 forage, one with industrial possibilities and one threatened. The correlation analysis showed that only the number of species vs. precipitation had significant differences. It is a fact that the conditions of the "community garbage dump" represent an opportunity for invasive species to survive and persist in the seed bank, waiting for adequate conditions to germinate and settle in increasingly larger areas, favored by the growing deterioration that human activity has caused in recent years.