Darwin's Naturalization Hypothesis Revisited

In "The Origin of Species," Charles Darwin drew attention to observations by Alphonse de Candolle that floras gain by naturalization far more species belonging to new genera than species belonging to native genera, and he promoted his theory of intense competition between congeners. To evaluate Darwin's naturalization hypothesis using an entire flora, Daehler tested whether naturalized alien plant species in the Hawaiian Islands are more likely to belong to alien genera than would be expected if a random pool of species had become naturalized.