-- into a non-native environment and whose growth habits are suited to the climate of their new surroundings. The plants persist and multiply (colonize) in their new "home."
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Biological filtration, for example, colonizes beneficial bacteria, which converts harmful ammonia into nitrates that fertilize plants and are relatively harmless to fish.
Mildew spores are microscopic and, therefore, difficult to detect until they colonize. They are transported easily by air currents, insects, and animals.
The fungi overwinter in active cankers or in dead wood that they have previously colonized. When conditions are cool and moist in the early spring, spores (conidia) are exuded in a sticky mass from fruiting structures (pycnidia) embedded in the wood.
Typically, ground covers sprawl, spread, run, or colonize by reseeding. Some ground covers will only grow in full shade, others thrive in full sun, and still others will survive no matter where you grow them.
Once the first few open blossoms are colonized by the bacteria, pollinating insects rapidly move the pathogen to other flowers, initiating more blossom blight.
Yet this is impractical when the problem is more widespread, as when spider mites have colonized the leaf undersides of a large shrub.
Mycorrhizae are fungi that colonize plant roots, and it's estimated that 90 percent of the plant species in the world have them, including vegetables, flowers, bulbs, trees, and shrubs.
Its ability to colonize and spread rapidly, especially in moist soil, was duly noted, but it was not until more recently that this aggressive nature was recognized as a flaw.
Without asking your permission, this sprightly terrestrial will slowly colonize a small area through its tuberous underground growths.
They produce small succulent rosettes which grow to only about 10-20cm across but which rapidly multiply to colonize a small patch around the original plant. In the garden they slowly spread creating a wonderfully dense evergreen carpet.
They conduct the same destructive activity indoors as they do outdoors, and the same aphids local to exterior spaces will colonize indoor spaces.
Saprophytic fungi are decomposers that aid in converting organic material into something that is useful to plants, while mycorrhizal fungi colonize roots but are not parasitic.
Once inside the fungus colonizes and plugs the vascular system resulting in leaf wilting and in some cases branch or tree mortality. In some, but not all trees a green to black streaking of the vascular system develops.
They can rapidly colonize a suitable habitat and they will eat enormous numbers of insects. Since many spiders overwinter as adults, they can reduce prey numbers early in the season before other biocontrol agents are active.
While not as common as thyme or basil, borage herb is a unique plant for the culinary garden. It grows quickly as an annual but will colonize a corner of the garden by self seeding and reappearing year after year.
Instead, picture your primary garden space as a settlement that can colonize the surrounding area. If that makes you think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?, you might be too paranoid to take up gardening.
One way to find out if a brown patch has been affected by heat or bugs is to take a small clump of grass in your hand. If the roots have rotted away, you can be sure that insects have colonized this section of your lawn.
Routine aeration (figure E)--say once or twice a year--will also help prevent fungal diseases. The same is true of dethatching, since many fungal organisms colonize in thatch.
So instead of a plant trying to derive it's nutrition solely through it's own roots, hundreds of thousands of these "little roots" colonize the root system of our plant, effectively doubling the existing surface area to absorb nutrients.
 See also: Plant, Water, Growing, Soil, High
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