Southwest Exotic Plant Information Clearinghouse
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The Categories
All of the plants evaluated using the Criteria are ranked according to ecological impacts, ability to invade native ecosystems, current ecological amplitude, and ecological distribution. The categories represent relative severity and DO NOT suggest a priority scheme or urgency ranking. Regardless of the category a plant is ranked as, ANY plant on this list is considered to have some degree of negative ecological impact. For a complete description of how each category is defined, click on the category.
Categories
| High: | Species that have severe ecological impacts on ecosystems and biotic communities and pose a threat to wildlands. |
| Medium: | Species that have substantial ecological impacts on ecosystems and biotic communities and pose a threat to wildlands. |
| Low: | Species that have a lesser threat to wildlands and relatively low impact on ecosystems and biotic communities. |
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Evaluated but not listed: |
Species for which the sum effects of ecological impacts, invasiveness, and distribution fall below the thresholds for ranking or for which current information is inadequate to respond with certainty to the questions. |
Additional Designations
| Alert: | An additional designation for some species in either the high or medium category, but whose current ecological amplitude and distribution are limited. Intended to alert managers to species that are capable of rapidly invading unexploited ecosystems, based on initial, localized observations, and on observed ecological behavior in similar ecosystems elsewhere. |
| Assigned by the AZ-WIPWG when a critical piece of information is not evident in the overall ranking. The red flag notation and the specific comments that accompany it, provide an opportunity to provide essential information to land managers and others that may use and interpret the categorization of a specific plant. |
Please contact Kathryn Thomas regarding any questions.
