Connecting global researchers working in invasion genomics

Banner image: Common pampas (Cortaderia selloana). Originally from South America, these large invasive grasses seriously threaten sand dunes, coastal cliffs, stream banks, and wetlands in Aotearoa New Zealand - replacing native vegetation, inhibiting regeneration of native plants, posing a fire risk, and harbouring invasive mammalian pests. Pampas are often confused with the native toetoe (Astroderia spp.) - an iconic landscape feature and an important traditional Māori plant.

Photograph: Waikato Regional Concil website

Central image: Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) leaf damage. Japanese beetles are native to Japan and invasive in North America and parts of Europe, where it feeds on hundreds of different plant types.

Photograph: C Watts

Bottom image: This photograph of Russell lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus) on the South Island of New Zealand won an International Garden Photographer of the Year award, but these flowers are actually a non-native, invasive species from North America. They were used in a hybridisation program that produced hybrids with increased vigour. In New Zealand, they colonise streambanks, affecting native riverbed bird habitat.

Photograph: Richard Bloom/International Garden Photographer of the Year