African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12487

Full Length Research Paper

Invasive plant species in lawns of Belgrade roads

Nenad Stavretović1,2* and Jovana Stevanović1
1Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Kneza Višeslava 1, Belgrade, Serbia. 2Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, Dr Ivana Ribara 91, Belgrade, Serbia.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 19 May 2011
  •  Published: 24 October 2011

Abstract

In this paper the presence of invasive and potentially invasive plant species in lawns of roads in Belgrade, the capital city of the Republic of Serbia was analysed. The following lawn categories were selected for the purpose of analysis: the lawns of traffic roundabouts, the lane-dividing lawns, the lawns around roads and lawns around highway. Five-year research was conducted on 32 sites in Belgrade and 183 plant species were recorded. Out of that number, 18 plant species (9.84%) were characterised as invasive and potentially invasive. The presence of considerable number of invasive species within the researched lawn categories, despite the specific ambient condition, made the grassy spaces of the roads the potential centre of wider spread on the surrounding areas. Considering the fact that on the researched surfaces, cultivating and maintaining measures are occasionally applied, the number of  invasive species was lower than that in the spaces not been maintained.

 

Key words: Invasive species, lawns, roads, invasion.