Animals in urban areas interact with all plants that are growing outdoors, irrespective of their status as native or alien, spontaneous or cultivated, i.e. the 'total flora'. Plant ecologists, however, tend to keep these categories separate. Chong et al. (attached) compiled a total flora for the city state of Singapore, but this is unusual because Singapore still has protected remnants of hyperdiverse tropical rainforest. In older cities, particularly in the temperate zone, cultivated plants dominate the biomass and the biodiversity, and the spontaneous flora has a large alien component. I'd like to do a global comparison, but I am finding it difficult to find examples. For many cities, a total flora list could be assembled from existing, separate lists for the different categories, but these tend to cover different areas and/or different dates, so I am hoping for total flora lists that have already been assembled by local experts.
Hello RT; You might get such a list for Some California cities by contacting the California Botanic Garden at https://www.calbg.org/
Another possible source is the California Native Plant Society at https://www.cnps.org/
Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Thank you for these answers, which I will follow up. Chong et al.'s total vascular flora for Singapore had more than 4000 species, around half native, and I would estimate - very, very, roughly - at least a 1000 for London and probably for most other major cities. Compiling a complete list for a big city from scratch is a massive task and the Singapore study benefitted hugely from the fact that Singapore is entirely urban, so national lists could be used.
Hi Richard, A few temperate and sub-arctic zone examples, Biodiversity in Urban Gardens project surveyed the alien/non-native garden flora of Sheffield, UK. There has also been some recent work done in Trondheim, Norway at the municipality level. A few publications below. It would be interesting to hear what factors you are considering in explaining the balance between native vs alien dominance across cities, as I imagine cities with protected areas, remanent natural areas or equivalent will have much contribution of native species to the total flora.
Sheffield, UK
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320705004751?casa_token=nOxv7DBonWYAAAAA:uXu-4h1ACx9UkNVXzrTIb3LCr4AS4S5NxwevIGtRMFq8hA6L9AIMKmvOH1ADl_lKKmR_gNu_b7g
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3170/2008-8-18373?casa_token=x1du6C-C8wYAAAAA:ba1H0_YvUxiyy0mtbCXXtgrX2l3okWgqlkKiF2u07HPYfJwjYZLSnbbTMZq8_pm07_l3bQ_MnsxOKT-g
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320709005412?casa_token=7Y49R_Heaa4AAAAA:ok8idaIaf2ahB42XedLqbDp0CX5lxazkbUGpUP-Jh-S4eQkGS2V8J7fWaytiPjInbqYuuFH2byg
Trondheim, Norway
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65459-2
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/njb.03026
Quaderni IBIS for Ravenna, Cervia and Forlì urban areas include list of such a species. G
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