I have always believed that every manuscript has its own life and destiny, unfolding independently of its author, and sometimes even pulling the author into its currents. This is particularly true for some manuscripts, and scientific manuscripts are no exception. Sometimes, the story flows smoothly, starting from an idea that quickly develops through text that grows and evolves almost by itself, with all co-authors contributing in a positive and enthusiastic atmosphere. Almost imperceptibly, the process reaches the publication phase, which passes almost unnoticed, where reviewers and editors recognize and understand the work, providing their benevolent and constructive input to its quality, and soon the publication sees the light of day, to the general satisfaction of everyone involved in the process.
This was not the case here. The stubborn manuscript entity had its own character and vision of creation, eluding control, resisting, hiding, wriggling, waiting, and influencing us in all sorts of ways throughout the process. It tirelessly tested our patience, persistence, systematic approach, discipline, and character at every step. It’s hard to find a reason for this, and allow us to admit, we stopped looking for one long ago. We explained it with one word – karma 😉
But today, we can proudly say – we have reached the end of this part of the story and are letting the publication continue its virtual life independently. Now it is a completely different text, and after all the revisions and changes, it has almost no common points with the initial version. This is, therefore, an opportunity to highlight all the good, because no story is black or white, it’s always somewhere among 50 shades of gray 😉
Or yellow 😊
So, let’s start with the yellow fields of Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadensis L.) in beautiful Istria, where this species grows invasively but also melliferously. And phytochemically fascinating.
This is where we started, asking ourselves: Where does this species grow, both invasively and natively? What processes underlie its invasiveness? Can its phytochemical profile be linked to the biological activity of its parts? Can the new reality of “new ecosystems” where biological invasions are inevitable be somehow redirected to work for us, providing us with some beneficial services? We were particularly interested in ecosystem services such as using invasive plant species, in this specific case Canadian goldenrod, as raw materials for the pharmaceutical and medical industries, as a source of natural herbicides and pesticides for agricultural use, as biofuels, and many others. We also wondered, can these services be the basis for a bioeconomy and how to evaluate this for a particular species?
Find the answers to these and many other questions in our new publication, published in juournal Plants. This is a review paper in which we have tried to systematize the latest insights into biological invasions using the example of one of the alien invasive plant species, in the context of the present day, where the sustainable coexistence of species becomes an inevitable imperative.
For easier immersion in the text, here is a wonderful, artistically inspired graphic summary – the work of our talented colleague Kristina Grozic, PhD.
