Hemerochory | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Hemerochory (Ancient Greek ἥμερος, hemeros: 'tame, ennobled, cultivated, cultivated' and Greek χωρίς choris: separate, isolated) is the distribution of cultivated plants or their seeds and cuttings, consciously or unconsciously, by humans into an area that they could not colonize through their natural mechanisms of spread, but are able to maintain themselves without specific human help in their new habitat. Hemerochory is one of the main propagation mechanisms of a plant. Hemerochoric plants can both increase and decrease the biodiversity of a habitat. Hemerochoric plants are classified according to the manner of introduction into, for example: Ethelochory: the conscious introduction by seed or young plants. Speirochoria: the unintentional introduction by contaminated seed. Examples are the true chamomile and the cornflower. Agochory: the introduction by unintentional transport with, among other things, ships, trains and cars. These plants are common in port areas, roadsides, stations and railways. Chronologically the hemerochoric plants are divided in: Archaeophytes: plants that were introduced before the onset of world trade around the year 1500, or before the year 1492 (discovery of America). Neophytes: plants that were introduced later. Anthropochory is often used synonymously but does not mean exactly the same. Anthropochory is the spread by humans. The spread through domestic animals does not belong to the anthropochoric, but to the hemerochoric, because domestic animals belong to the human culture. Strictly speaking, anthropochoric means the spread through humans as a transport medium. These can also be native species that were either adapted from the outset to locations created by human cultural activity or have adapted to them afterwards; As a result, their area of distribution has often, but not always, increased. The term adventitious plants is sometimes used synonymously with hemerochory, but is often restricted to species that were intentionally brought into the area and then naturalized, sometimes also for species that have not (yet) firmly established themselves in their new habitat.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (10)

Archaeophyte

An archaeophyte is a plant species which is non-native to a geographical region, but which was an introduced species in "ancient" times, rather than being a modern introduction. Those arriving after are called neophytes. The cut-off date is usually the beginning of the early modern period (turn of the 15th or 16th century). In Britain, archaeophytes are considered to be those species first introduced prior to the year 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World and the Columbian Exchange began.

Naturalisation (biology)

Naturalisation (or naturalization) is the ecological phenomenon through which a species, taxon, or population of exotic (as opposed to native) origin integrates into a given ecosystem, becoming capable of reproducing and growing in it, and proceeds to disseminate spontaneously. In some instances, the presence of a species in a given ecosystem is so ancient that it cannot be presupposed whether it is native or introduced. Generally, any introduced species may (in the wild) either go extinct or naturalise in its new environment.

Neophyte (botany)

In botany, a neophyte (from Greek νέος (néos) "new" and φυτόν (phutón) "plant") is a plant species which is not native to a geographical region and was introduced in recent history. Non-native plants that are long-established in an area are called archaeophytes. In Britain, neophytes are defined more specifically as plant species that were introduced after 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World and the Columbian Exchange began. The terminology of the invasion biology is very uneven.