A Brief History of Invasion Biology (1 of 3): Inventing & defining “native”

An excerpt from the book-in-progress by Nikki Hill & me: "Stop Blaming the Messengers: A critique of invasion biology & ideology"

ILLUSTRATION BY DREW BARDANA: Finnish naturalist Pehr Kalm in North America

Inventing & defining “native”

For some species to be “invasive,” others must be “native,” so a history of invasion biology must necessarily begin with the origins of the concept of nativeness itself.

The first substantive discussion of introduced plants by a European scientific fig…