The families with the richest naturalised flora in South Africa are Fabaceae
(73 taxa), Asteraceae (64), Myrtaceae (47), Cactaceae (42), and Poaceae (38).
These top five families contain 35% of the alien flora (Fig. 3.1a). Genera with
10 species or more are Eucalyptus (22), Acacia (17), Opuntia (16), Solanum (14),
Oenothera (10) and Senna (10) (Fig. 3.1b). An extraordinary feature of the
naturalised flora is the dominance of woody plants—56% are trees and shrubs (see
Box 3.1 and Fig. 3.1c).
Fig. 3.1 Features of South Africa’s naturalised alien flora, showing the dominant (a) families,
(b) genera, and (c) plant life forms.
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