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Accepted manuscript

Invasion Alert: Populations of Stylosanthes viscosa (Fabaceae) in southeastern Florida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2025

James K. Wetterer*
Affiliation:
Professor, Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
*
Corresponding author: James K. Wetterer; Email: wetterer@fau.edu)
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Abstract

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Stylosanthes viscosa (L.) Sw. (Fabaceae) is a herbaceous legume with a native range that includes much of the Neotropics, from Argentina to Texas and several West Indian islands. Except for native populations in Texas, there are no published records of this species growing outside cultivation in the continental United States. Here, I report extensive populations of S. viscosa in southeastern Florida, often growing in near monoculture, with an observed range spanning more than 35 km from Lakewood Park to Port St Lucie in St Lucie County and to Jensen Beach in northernmost Martin County. These populations may have descended from plants imported from Brazil and grown at the Agricultural Research Center (now the Indian River Research and Education Center) in Fort Pierce, St Lucie County, where at least one field of this species growing in near monoculture persists. Stylosanthes viscosa has the potential of becoming a dominant invasive species in and adjacent to open habitats in peninsular Florida.

Information

Type
Invasion Alert
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Weed Science Society of America