Quarterly Publication by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant

South Florida has a recent history which is highlighted by the introduc-tion of plant species from distant parts of the world. Some of these plant im-portations have proven to be extremely harmful to the natural environment and human infrastructure, thus insti-gating work leading to a better descrip-tion of the problem and control measures. Concerned individuals in Florida were the first in the United States to organize a council to identify the most serious pest plants and com-pare notes on control methods, if any. The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council was established in 1984, and one of the early documents created was a check-list of the pest plants recognized at that time. Today, the list includes more than 120 species in two categories, based on oral and written field reports compiled from a wide spectrum of observers (FLEPPC1996,1999). Category 1 plants are considered the most serious, since these are defined as "Species that are invading and disrupting native plant communities in Florida. " Category 2 species have "shown a potential to dis-rupt native plant communities." An equally important issue is the effort to prevent the introduction o