Historical nursery catalogues provide insight into introduction history, lag times, and traits of invasive ornamental plants in New Zealand

Data on introduced plant species occurrence in ornamental nursery catalogues in New Zealand stretching from 1861 to 1992, combined with data on naturalization dates and plant traits. These data have been used to assess lag time between introduction and naturalization and to assess difference in traits between naturalized species and species classified as invasive in natural areas.We used nursery catalogues to estimate the date of introduction for both naturalized and non-naturalized ornamental species, and then calculated the lag time between introduction and naturalization. Some naturalized species were designated as invasive in natural areas, while others were not. We compared lag times between these groups of species, and accounted for woodiness, minimum residence time, and frequency with which the species were sold in catalogues over time.These analyses are described in the following manuscript:Bufford, JL, Dawes TN, Hulme PE. 2025. Species that invade natural areas have shorter lag times than other naturalized ornamental species. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.07721We also tested whether traits and introduction history differed between introduced, naturalized and invasive species. We used boosted regression trees to assess whether naturalized or invasive species had greater introduction effort (frequency in catalogues), hardiness traits (wet/drought tolerance, cold hardiness, sun/shade tolerance, soil pH range), growth traits (maximum height, deciduousness), reproductive traits (vegetative, root, and/or seed reproduction), or family propensity towards invasiveness.These analyses are described in the following manuscript:Dawes TN, Bufford, JL, Hulme PE. 2025. Historical frequency of plants in nursery catalogues predicts likelihood of naturalization in ornamental species. Ecological Applications. DOI: 10.1002/eap.70023The full dataset (Ornamental Species from Nursery Catalogues.xlsx) includes a data sheet and a metadata sheet, which provides definitions for all of the columns in the data and indicates which data were used in each analysis. Data include: species name; first year recorded in a catalogue; frequency in catalogues; year of naturalization; status as introduced, naturalized or invasive in natural areas; and a range of species traits. For details on data sources, please see the published manuscripts.We also include the list of the genera we searched for in the nursery catalogues (List of Target Genera.csv). These genera represent the genera of all species classified as invasive in natural areas in New Zealand and any taxonomic names previously associated with those species. Species classified as invasive in natural areas in New Zealand were taken from: Howell, C. (2008). Consolidated list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. <i>DOC Research &amp; Development Series</i>, <i>292</i>, 42.<br>