Aim: Road networks are common landscape disturbances that can facilitate the spread of invasive plants. This study explored the influence of distance from the road, habitat type and broader environmental factors in shaping the distribution patterns of both invasive and native species in the above‐ground vegetation and soil seed banks.Location: Guangxi, China.Methods: We collected data on plant species composition from both soil seed banks and above‐ground vegetation at six distances from the road edge: 0 m, 2 m, 4 m, 9 m, 14 m and 24 m in three habitat types, including abandoned land, Eucalyptus plantations and natural secondary forests. We collected data on environmental variables at each sampling location. We examined the compositional similarity of plant communities by non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and identified the influence factors by redundancy analysis (RDA).Results: Our results indicated that invasive species richness decreased with distance from the road, especially in natural secondary forests. Conversely, native species did not show consistent distribution patterns relative to distance from roads across the various habitats. The composition of invasive plant communities was similar in both soil seed banks and above‐ground vegetation, while only 13.33% of native species identified in the soil were observed in the above‐ground vegetation. Road characteristics, human disturbance and soil properties correlated with the distribution of invasive and native species, with the strength of these correlations varying among habitat types. The richness and density of native plants were associated with the presence of invasive alien plants at various distances from the road across the three types of habitats.Main Conclusions: The study highlights that proximity to the road, habitat type and environmental factors are critical in determining the distribution of plant species within nature reserves. Moreover, it underscores the importance of integrating both above‐ground and seed bank perspectives for effective management strategies to control invasive species and promote native plant communities.

Invasive alien plants have invaded various habitats, posing a threat to biodiversity. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanisms of invasion, but few studies have considered the characteristics of the invaded communities and the effects of human interference in the invasion. In this study, we compared the invasibility of three different habitats: abandoned land, eucalyptus plantations, and natural secondary forests. We explored the effects of species diversity, phylogenetic diversity, and disturbance factors on the invasibility of different habitats. The results showed that the invasibility of abandoned land was the highest and the invasibility of the natural secondary forest was the lowest. Phylogenetic indicators affected the invasibility of abandoned land and eucalyptus plantations, and disturbance factors affected the invasibility of all three habitats, while the characteristics of the invaded communities had a weak impact. Our research provided supporting evidence for Darwin’s naturalization hypothesis and his disturbance hypothesis but found no relationship between biotic resistance and invasibility. This study indicated that the differences among habitats should be considered when we prove Darwin’s naturalization hypothesis in nature reserves.