The alien flora of Albania: history, current status and future trends Z BARINA*, M RAKAJ † , G SOMOGYI ‡ , Z ER Ő S-HONTI ‡ & D PIFKO ´ * *Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary, †Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Shkodra ‘Luigj Gurakuqi’, Shkode ¨r, Albania, and ‡Department of Botany and Soroks ar Botanical Garden, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Received 11 March 2013 Revised version accepted 30 September 2013 Subject Editor: Christian Bohren, Agroscope, Switzerland Summary The first synthesis of the alien flora of Albania is pre- sented here. In order to be able to compare with other published studies, the categories of the aliens are described using widely accepted terms. However, addi- tional terms are also introduced in the text. Alto- gether, 196 alien species occur outside cultivation, including 81 naturalised and 16 partly naturalised weeds, 11 remnants of the former cultivation, nine old and 38 new casuals, 41 presumably extinct aliens and no invasives. Some authors regarded 25 native species incorrectly as aliens and nine alien species were errone- ously documented as members of the Albanian flora. The changes of the alien flora of Albania differ consid- erably from that of most European countries, and the actual proportion of aliens in the Albanian flora is the lowest in Europe. The low number of aliens, the lack of invasives and the relatively low frequency of aliens in Albania are the consequences of the long-term seclusion of the country during the 20th century, and the low level of economic development, the extended land use and also the fact that aliens have been present only for quite a short time in the flora. All recent social and economic changes facilitate the establish- ment and spread of aliens in the country, especially in the lowlands. Keywords: naturalised, invasive, casual, native, errone- ously reported species. BARINA Z, RAKAJ M, SOMOGYI G, ER } OS-HONTI Z&PIFK  O D (2014). The alien flora of Albania: history, current status and future trends. Weed Research. Introduction Knowledge of the alien flora of Albania In most European countries, lists and catalogues of alien species recording their appearance and their spread have already been compiled (Lambdon et al., 2008). While changes of the species pool and the com- position of some regions are well documented (Py  sek et al., 2012), knowledge of the introduced plants of certain countries is quite poor, and the first compre- hensive checklists of these regions were constructed only in the last few years (Bacchetta et al., 2009; Ari- anoutsou et al., 2010; Jeanmonod et al., 2011). Although several attempts have been made to produce a synthesis of the Albanian flora (e.g. Vangjeli, 2003), little emphasis was laid on the alien species, and hith- erto, no overview on the Albanian alien flora has been published. Historical and socio-economic background Albania was along an important trade route in the Roman Empire up until the Middle Ages. Via Egnatia, Correspondence: Zolt an Barina, Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum, PO Box 222, 1476 Budapest, Hungary. Tel: (+36) 1 210 1330; Fax: (+36) 1 3141 483; E-mail: barina@bot.nhmus.hu © 2014 European Weed Research Society DOI: 10.1111/wre.12061