Darwin posited that invaders similar to native species are less likely to be successful due to competitive exclusion. A key axis across which such competition occurs across angiosperms is the timing of flowering, or reproductive phenology. It has been hypothesized that temporal isolation facilitates the establishment of introduced species. However, our knowledge of how the timing of flowering may influence invasion success is lacking at broader geographic and larger taxonomic scales. To address this impasse, we investigated: (i) how flowering phenology differs between native and non-native species; (ii) whether the flowering phenology of successful invaders is distinct from native taxa; and (iii) whether invasive species tend to be more closely related to natives than other less successful, non-invasive introduced species are.

中文翻译：

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物候相似性和独特性促进植物入侵

达尔文认为，由于竞争排斥，与本地物种相似的入侵者不太可能成功。被子植物之间发生这种竞争的一个关键轴是开花时间或生殖物候。据推测，暂时的隔离有利于引进物种的建立。然而，我们对开花时间如何影响入侵成功的了解缺乏更广泛的地理和更大的分类学尺度。为了解决这个僵局，我们研究了：（i）本地和非本地物种之间的开花物候有何不同； (ii) 成功入侵者的开花物候是否与本地类群不同； (iii) 与其他不太成功的非入侵引进物种相比，入侵物种是否往往与本地物种关系更密切。