Urban alien plants in temperate oceanic regions of Europe originate from warmer native ranges

peer reviewedWhen colonizing new areas, alien plantspecies success can depend strongly on local environ-mental conditions. Microclimatic barriers might be thereason why some alien plant species thrive in urban areas, while others prefer rural environments. We tested the hypothesis that the climate in the nativerange is a good predictor of the urbanity of alienspecies in the invaded range. The relationship betweenclimate in the native range and the percentage ofartificiallysealedsurfaces(urbanity)attheoccurrences of 24 emerging alien plant species, inEuropean areas with a temperate climate (termedoceanic Europe) was evaluated. We found that alienspecies growing in more urban environments origi-nated from warmer or drier native ranges than found inoceanic Europe. These results have strong conserva-tion implications as climate-warming will likely liftclimatic barriers that currently constrain numerous alien plant species to cities, boosting the role of citiesas points of entry for invasive plant