January 29, 2025 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source written by researcher(s) proofread by Amy Hinsley, Silviu Petrovan, The Conversation Back in 2016, one of us (Silviu Petrovan) was asked to identify a live frog found in a shipment of roses in Sheffield, England. It certainly wasn't any species found in Europe: Silviu thought he had been pranked.
But with help from Ecuadorian and Colombian scientists, he was soon able to identify it as a North Andean tree frog. This species is found only in a few areas in the highlands of Colombia including, crucially, a region known for its flower-growing. This sudden realization that cut flowers are being shipped from Colombia via Ecuador to Britain, potentially with hitchhiking animals in tow, sparked a collaborative project to investigate the complexities in this increasingly global trade.
Initially, we explored the risks that invasive species will establish themselves. For instance, the recent fashion for old potted olive trees in restaurants, typically imported from farms in Italy and Spain, is a risk because these trees can serve as vehicles for species like the Italian wall lizard. Sometimes called the Italian ruin lizard (scientists call it Podarcis siculus), the lizard is spreading throughout Europe , with introductions often linked to .
