1. ABOUT THE DATASET
------------
Title: A botanist’s perspective on invasive ornamental plants: Supporting data for research involving Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) vice-county recorders exploring invasive species.
Creator(s): Tomos Jones (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-5053)
Organisation(s): University of Reading
Rights-holder(s): University of Reading
Publication Year: 2024
Description: Supporting data associated with an online survey of Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) vice-county recorders.
The aim of this research was to: 1) explore attitudes of botanists towards ornamentals; and 2) gather information on which ornamentals are considered invasive and - more importantly - of increasing concern (i.e. potentially invasive species) in each vice county in Britain and Ireland. This online survey was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading (reference number SBS 17-18 11) and hosted on Jisc Online Surveys.
Section A of the survey measured general attitudes towards ornamental plants in Britain and Ireland and Section B focused on ornamental plants in each individual vice county and recorders were asked to list the ‘top five’ invasive garden plants and the ‘top five’ of increasing concern.
The survey and the full analysed list of taxa reported by the vice-county recorders [n = 35] are included.
Cite as: Jones, Tomos (2024): A botanist’s perspective on invasive ornamental plants: Supporting data for research involving Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) vice-county recorders exploring invasive species. University of Reading. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001303 
Related publication: This forms supporting data for chapter 2 of PhD thesis: Jones, Tomos (2024). Ornamental plants: our future invaders? Engaging with gardeners to tackle the issue of invasive species. PhD thesis, University of Reading. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48683/1926.00116656. This is also being prepared for submission as a published journal article.
Acknowledgements: PhD supervisors: Alastair Culham, Brian Pickles and John David.
2. TERMS OF USE
------------
Copyright 2024 University of Reading. This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION
------------

Title: British garden plants: a threat to the natural environment due to climate change?	
Dates: 2017 - 2024
Funding organisation: NERC
Grant no.: NE/L002566/1
Part of a PhD project called ‘Ornamental plants: our future invaders? Engaging with gardeners to tackle the issue of invasive species’.
4. CONTENTS
------------
File: Supporting information_2_1 includes the Information Sheet and the online survey questions.
File : Supplementary_Information 2__2_14_4_24 includes the full analysed list of taxa reported by the vice-county recorders [n = 35] along with the respective authority given and the number (N) of reports.
5. METHODS
-----------
Please refer to associated PhD thesis for methods.