Revisiting Darwin’s naturalization conundrum: explaining invasion success of non-native trees and shrubs in southern Africa

1. Invasive species are detrimental ecologically and economically. Their negative impacts in Africa are extensive and call for a renewed commitment to better understand the correlates of invasion success. 2. Here, we explored several putative drivers of species invasion among woody non-native trees and shrubs in southern Africa, a region of high floristic diversity. We tested for differences in functional traits between plant categories using a combination of phylogenetic independent contrasts and a simulation-based phylogenetic anova. 3. We found that non-native species generally have longer flowering duration compared with native species and are generally hermaphroditic, and their dispersal is mostly abiotically mediated. We also revealed that non-native trees and shrubs that have become invasive are less closely related to native trees and shrubs than their non-invasive non-native counterparts. Non-natives that are more closely related to the native species pool may be more likely to...