THE SPREAD OF ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA L. IN THE ROMANIAN BANAT

Introduced in Europe for the first time as a medicinal plant (around the 1630) and later as an ornamental, Asclepias syriaca L. has escaped from culture and became subspontaneous. Today, this species raises serious threats of invasion in some European countries, such as Hungary, for example. In this paper, we discuss the spread of the species in the Romanian Banat, especially in the spontaneous vegetation. The first reports in the region are those from the Romanian Flora. We found this species in different habitats: roadsides, wastelands, railways, wetlands, meadows, the proximity of some wine farms, in several localities and their surroundings such as: Timisoara, Covaci, Dumbravita, Remetea Mare, Buzias, Recas, Satchinez, Surduc, Fardea, Pischia, Jebel, Sacalaz, Sannicolau Mare, Bezdin, Cenad etc. Even if it appears isolated and the populations are generally small, we believe that the species must be attentively monitored, because in recent years it has been reported in almost all of Romania and considering the impact it can have on local habitats and flora. Our data, corroborated with those published by other authors show that we are most likely in a preliminary stage of the consistent spread of this species in the Romanian Banat.