Cultivated Non-Native Vascular Plants of Kazakhstan: Taxonomic Composition, Regional Distribution and Establishment Status

Deliberate cultivation is an important pathway for the introduction of non-native plants, some of which establish populations outside cultivation. We compiled a taxonomically standardised checklist of non-native vascular plants recorded as cultivated in Kazakhstan and compared their regional distributions with the national alien-flora inventory. The checklist contains 286 taxa in 200 genera and 60 families, including 136 ornamental and 88 food taxa. Spontaneous occurrence is documented for 108 taxa (37.8%): 66 casual, 37 naturalised but non-invasive and five invasive. Among cultivation-purpose categories containing more than one taxon, the proportion recorded outside cultivation ranges from 25.0% for industrial plants to 76.5% for forage plants. Five invasive taxa, Acer negundo, Ailanthus altissima, Euonymus europaeus, Fraxinus excelsior and Pilosella aurantiaca, were assigned Moderate environmental impact ratings in the published national EICAT assessment. The checklist brings together floristic records of cultivation and independently assessed information on spontaneous occurrence and establishment in Kazakhstan.