Exoot: de begripsgeschiedenis van de invasie-ecologie, van Linnaeus tot Darwin

Peeters, N.G.J. (2026)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation examines the conceptual history of invasion ecology from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, focusing on how alien plants came to be identified, classified, and evaluated within natural history and early ecological thought. Central to the dissertation is the claim that three semantic shifts structured changing understandings of alien plants. These shifts successively frame alien species as colonists, as invasives, and as weeds. The first shift is located in the work of Carolus Linnaeus and his student Jon Flygare, particularly in their 1768 treatise De coloniis plantarum, which offers a systematic account of plant colonization and the role of purposeful and accidental human-mediated dispersal. The second shift concerns the emergence of the concept of invasion in the nineteenth century, most notably in the writings of Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell, who begin to characterize exotic plants and animals that spread rapidly and cause the displacement or extinction of aboriginal flora and fauna as invasive. The final shift addresses the mid-nineteenth-century re-evaluation of exotic plants as weeds. This development coincides with the first reported plant plagues in Europe and the colonies and marks the emergence of a new class of weeds understood as plants that are out of place in nature.

• Linnaeus
• Darwin
• Invasion ecology
• Exotic plants
• Weed
• History of ecology

• All authors: Peeters, N.G.J.
• Supervisor: McAllister, J.W., Snoo, G.R. de
• Co-supervisor: Sleutels, J.J.M.
• Committee: Andel, T.R. van; Gravendeel, B.; Jorink, H.G.M.; Theunissen, L.T.G.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute for Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2026-01-20
• Publisher: Gorredijk: Noordboek
• ISBN (print): 9789464713671
• Sponsorship: Hugo de Vries Fonds