The phenomenon of invasive alien plants is increasing with urbanization in various parts of the world, seriously affecting the stability of urban ecosystems and socio-economic development. This study was carried out on the basis of a census of the dominant vegetation in the terrestrial areas of Shenzhen, to investigate and analyse the distribution, sources, invasion pathways and risks of invasive plants in the city, and to provide technical support for the control of invasive plants in Shenzhen. The basic data was obtained by the method of combining high-resolution remote sensing images and ground field observations; and the basic data of plant species were screened, extracted and analyzed according to the research requirements through the literature analysis method; the patch invasion risk calculation model and invasive plant populations risk calculation model were introduced creatively, to calculate the risk distribution of invasive plants and high-risk invasive plants species in Shenzhen. The results showed that:(1) according to the standard of "Chinese Alien Invasive Plants List", there were 258 species of invasive plants from 200 genera, 63 families in Shenzhen, and Leguminosae, Asteraceae and Poaceae were dominant; 36 of these plants were officially recognized by the Forestry, Environmental, Agriculture & Rural Affairs and Customs authorities as invasive species that require strict control. (2) Single-species families and few-species families accounted for a relatively high proportion with 87.30%. The gigantic-species families, although accounting for only 4.8% of the total number of families, contained a total of 106 species, accounting for 41.1% of the total number of invasive plant species. The single-species genus was overwhelmingly dominant at the genus level of invasive plants in Shenzhen, accounting for 83.5% of the total, much higher than the sum of the other types. Among the medium-species genera, the ratio of genera to species is 1:6. (3) The characteristics of tropical flora are very obvious. Tropical distribution families contained 35 families, accounting for 92.11% of the total families. The tropical distribution genera contained 131 genera, accounting for up to 75.72% of the total genera. (4) The invasive plants were mainly plant species native to Asia, accounting for 42.38%. Invasive plants native to South and North America also occupied a certain advantage, accounting for 25.17% and 15.89%, respectively. (5) According to the analysis of the risk of invasive species and community patches, the high risk areas of invasive plants in Shenzhen were mainly distributed in suburban or near-natural areas where human activities are low, management and maintenance are weak, and vegetation is nearly naturalized. Finally, this paper analyses the invasion pathways of eight plants with high invasion risk values and gives recommendations for the control of them.