Some of the most serious invasive exotics are vines, such as kudzu.
Some of the most damaging invasive exotics in the eastern United States are listed below:
A major invasive species in Europe is Caulerpa taxifolia[?], a Mediterranean clone weed, also called Killer algae.
C. taxifolia was observed for the first time in the Mediterraneen sea in 1984, along the coast of Monaco. In 1997, it already covered around 5000 hectares. It has a strong potential to overgrow natural biotopes, and represent a major risk for the sublittoral ecosystems. Hypothesis of the origin of the algua are either a migration from the Red Sea, or introduction from a aquarium.
A number of invasive exotics in Australia are listed below:
Other outstanding examples of invasive exotic animals include the gypsy moth in eastern North America, zebra mussel[?] and alewife[?] in the Great Lakes and the possum in New Zealand.
Invasive exotic disease introductions in the past century or so include the chestnut blight which has virtually extinguished the American chestnut, and Dutch elm disease, which has severely damaged the American elm.
The term "invasive exotic" is generally not used for economically valuable crops and livestock, although they can have larger effects on ecosystems than even the most successful weeds.
See also
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump