Contribution to the Alien Flora of Turkey: Impatiens glandulifera Royle (Balsaminaceae)

: During a few decades, rapidly increasing number of studies have documented about the spread and expansion of alien plant species all over the world. These species are either introduced intentionally or unintentionally outside of their natural ranges. Impatiens glandulifera Royle (Balsaminaceae) introduced in Europe intentionally as garden and nectar-producing plant but later it was spread and became a highly invasive annual species in many parts of Europe. This species was collected from outside of gardens in two close localities in Giresun (Turkey). So, we reported it as a new alien vascular plant for the Flora of Turkey. As well, the description together with Turkish name and photographs of the taxon are presented in the present study.


INTRODUCTION
Today, 3.9% (13168 species) of the plants in the world have naturalized outside their natural habitats as a result of human activity (van Kleunen et al., 2015). Increased introduction and movement of alien species were started by human activities around the planet since the 18th century (Emer et al., 2015). The number of alien species in Europe has increased by 76% in the last 40 years (CABI, 2021). Prolific seed production and high spread capability of alien species make them invasive outside their habitats. Unwary people around the world have contributed to move these taxa from their natural habitats to outside their native ranges. With its moderate climatic conditions (especially heavy rainfall and frequent mist throughout the year), NE Anatolia has hitherto hosted many of alien species (Terzioğlu and Anşin, 2001). Many people from this region of Turkey have stayed at different European countries, and spent their holidays in hometown, nearly every year. Both intentionally and unintentionally, these people have carried some seeds, bulbs or plants from Europe to their localities. Although it is difficult and complex to explain the real factors of the naturalization process and the vectors of alien species, some ornamental plants were able to escape from gardens to natural and planted/naturalized habitats.
As a garden ornamental and nectar-producing plant, Impatiens glandulifera Royle (Himalayan balsam) was introduced into Europe from the Himalayas in the first half of the 19th century (Pyšek and Prach, 1995). It is included along with the 17 other terrestrial plant species in Europe's top 100 invasive species (DAISIE, 2010) and on the EPPO List of IAS since 2004 (Pacanoski and Saliji, 2014). It is reported as a highly invasive annual species spread in 18 European countries, North America and Russia (from northern regions to the Caucasus in the south) after its introduction as an ornamental (CABI, 2021;Pacanoski and Saliji, 2014;Cockel and Tannel, 2011;Tanner at al., 2013).
The genus Impatiens is represented with a native I. noli-tangere L. and many cultivars of I. walleriana Hook. in Flora of Turkey (Güner, 2012). I. glandulifera is distributed as an invasive alien species in northern and western neighboring countries of Turkey (CABI, 2021), and has never been recorded from Turkey before.

MATERIAL and METHOD
Specimens were collected from Çamlıca village (Keşap/Giresun) in 2020. All specimens were labelled, numbered, annotated with the date of collection, the locality, and the name of the collector during the field studies. After identification, voucher specimens were deposited in both KATO (Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Forestry) and KTUB (Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology) Herbariums in Trabzon. Materials were collected from two close populations around the settlement areas and, coordinated by GPS (UTM 50 Datum) which were given below. This species was named in Turkish according to the guidelines of Menemen et al. (2013). Annual, plant, robust, somewhat woody up to 2 m (sometimes 3 m) in height, glabrous. Stem simple or rarely branching, hollow, green with a reddish tinge. Simple leaves opposite (upper ones verticillate, mostly by threes), wide up to 7 cm, 4-5 times longer than wide, ovate-lanceolate, base cuneate, glandular stipitate, petiole up to 5 cm. Sweetly scented flowers hermaphrodite, zygomorphic, peduncle 1 mm thick; calyx colored, central sepal enlarged and flaring, lateral sepals oblique-cordate, to 9 mm long, lower one saccate and abruptly ending in a 5-6 mm incurved spur; petals three, pinkish to purplish-red, often purple spotted, about 1.5 cm in length and 7 mm in width, central one widened. Fruits loculicide-fleshy capsule, clavate, up to 25 mm in length, nodding, slightly 5-angled. Seeds depressed, sub globose, 3 mm broad, pale grey-brown, ejected explosively. Fl.: July-August, Fr.: August-September, river banks, disturbed area.  (Figure 2).  Şekil 2. Impatiens glandulifera ( )'nın Türkiye'deki yayılışı (Güner 2014'den uyarlanmıştır).
According to Uludağ et al. (2017), the number of alien plant species in Turkey is 340 however literature surveys show that the number is ca. 450. This study aimed to give one more new alien species, Impatiens glandulifera, for Turkish Flora. As strongly emphasized, it is an extreme invasive alien species in Europe (Schönfelder and Bresinsky, 1990;Perrins et al., 1990;Bohušovái, 1992;Beerling and Perrins, 1993;Pacanoski and Saliji, 2014;CABI, 2021) and Canada (Clements et al., 2008). To date, a doubtful presence of this species reported without any herbaria, vouchers and locality information from Black Sea Region of Turkey by Aksoy and Uludağ (2016). At the same time, this species was not listed in the first comprehensive compilation and analysis of all available records on alien plant taxa in Turkey by Uludağ et al. (2017). So, this species was not recorded/published before based on any confirmed materials from Turkey.
The introduction of the species is the result of its use as decorative plant and as a source of nectar to pollinators including bumblebees, honeybees, moths, and wasps (Beerling andPerrins, 1993, Helmisaari, 2010;ISSG, 2021). Considering its main pathway, in order to prevent its introduction to new ecosystems, public awareness is extremely important. As a tallest annual plant species of Europe (Pyšek and Prach, 1995), its high holocellulose contented stems persist until spring season and suppress competing seedlings of natural taxa in the following spring (ISSG, 2021). Because of its general distribution in damp woodlands near streams (as its new location in Turkey), water is an important vector for dispersing diaspores of the species, and the lower altitudes are in risk of easy invasion. Furthermore, the capacity of an individual to produce 2500 seeds (Koenies and Glavac, 1979), the ability to explosive ejection of seeds up to 5 (Fitch, 1976;Clements et al., 2008), a seed rain of up to 6000 seeds/m 2 (Beerling and Perrins, 1993) and its ability surviving longer than a year (Perrins et al., 1990) extremely increase the invasion capacity of I. glandulifera. Though its young shoots are sensitive to frost (Beerling, 1993), the rapid growth rate of both its seedlings and young individuals (Koenies and Glavac, 1979) result shading other plants living in close vicinity of this tallest annual species.
During the field studies an ongoing project of "Addressing of Invasive Alien Species Threats in Terrestrial Areas and Inland Waters in Turkey", I. glandulifera was detected soon after its introduction to Anatolian ecosystems with the present study. It has already been known only from two close vicinities in Çamlıdere village, Keşap (Giresun) in NE Anatolian ecosystem where the populations are very sparse. Thus, it is easy to control its spreading and eradicate it from Turkey.
The best way in order to manage the I. glandulifera's dispersal is to prevent flowering and the formation and spread of the seeds (Shaw, 2003). For this, mechanical eradication is quite easy due to the modest root system of the species (Pacanoski and Saliji, 2014), and effective especially before than seed ripen. In the one hand, sheep and cattle grazing is reported as a good method to manage this species (Larsson and Martinsson, 1998) on the other hand grazing helps the explosive ejection of the seed which helps its invasion. reported as a classical biological control agent for I. glandulifera in its invasive ranges and this rust negatively impacts on the growth of infected plants (Tanner et a, 2015;Varia et al., 2016). As well,