27^th Meeting of the EPPO Panel on Invasive Alien Plants

Videoconference, 2022-05-11/13

The 27^th meeting of the EPPO Panel on Invasive Alien Plants was held at the EPPO Headquarters in Paris on 11^th – 13^th May 2022. The Panel members presented updates from their countries on activities concerning invasive alien plants.

Standards

Panel reviewed a first draft of a PM 3 Inspection Standard: Inspection for invasive plants at borders. The Standard aims to describe the inspection procedures for consignments of plants for planting, including aquatic plants, to avoid the import of regulated invasive plants. The Panel suggested a number of additions to the Standard, including possible measures if an invasive alien plant is found as a contaminant of plants for planting. The Standard will be updated and the Panel will further review it in its meeting in 2023. Panel agreed that it is useful to develop a PM 9 National Regulatory Control systems for Solanum carolinense.

Pest Risk Analysis (PRA)

The Panel reviewed two PRAs on Solanum carolinense and S. varium. Solanum carolinense is recommended for regulation as an EPPO A2 pest due to the potential negative impacts the species can have on crop yields. S. viarum is recommended for inclusion in the EPPO Observation List, impacts in the EPPO region are likely to be low but the PRA should be revisited if and when new scientific evidence is published on the species The Panel suggested as priorities for PRA in 2023 and 2024: Zizania latifolia (Poaceae) and Ageratina adenophora (Asteraceae).

Prioritization Process

The Panel reviewed an online prioritization process tool that the EPPO Secretariat has under development. This tool will enable one or more users to work on prioritization online and generate a report. The Panel agreed to re-prioritise the alien plant species on the EPPO Observation List using scientific information that has been published since their inclusion on the list. All species that were included on the Observation List since 2015 will be re-prioritised. The Panel agreed that each expert will bring to the Panel meeting in 2023 a list of 10-15 alien plants that are of concern to their country/region. These lists will then be combined, and the Panel will prioritize the species using the EPPO Prioritization process.

Working field trip

The Panel visited the Arboretum de Paris in the east of the city. Here, the Panel tested a field assessment protocol for alien plant species in sentinel sites to assess their invasiveness and potential impacts on cultivated (e.g. agricultural and amenity sites) or natural environments. The protocol aims to facilitate standardised data acquisition by plant experts in sentinel sites Panel members will further test the protocol in their countries during the summer of 2022 and report back to the Panel in 2023.

Solanum viarum – Courtesy: Guillaume Fried