ALASKAN LUPINE - The Flower That Has Taken Over Iceland - Amazing Plants
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- ALASKAN LUPINE
Scientific Name: Lupinus nootkatensis
Location: Iceland
Its time for a side quest in my Icelandic Adventure, for better or for worse this flower is everywhere throughout the country. Now that you've seen it, you may notice these making cameo appearances throughout all the other episodes in my Iceland series.
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Smarter Every Day, Lofty Rex - บันเทิง
So what do you think? Is Alaskan Lupine a good thing or a bad thing?
Iceland kinda looks like Doomsday already happened plenty of years ago
This happen in sweden, its very beautiful but it overpower everything. I guess this could happned by nature sooner or later, i guess this goes in cykler
I guess it depends. On one hand, as long as it doesn't kill trees, the nitrogen it provides could be helpful; Maybe a good controlled burn followed by planting native trees that are a "pioneer species". It could help things get started. If left alone, it's a bad thing. I've read: "a weed is a plant who's virtues have yet to be discovered".
i personally think Lupine a good thing.
they have been spreading on my family's land for the last 20-30 years, i remember back in the late 90s early 2000s we would get sand sandstorms on a regular basis, have not seen one in about 15 years.
I'm thinking its capturing a lot of carbon, and as it rots down incorporating that into the soil, as a lupin it wil be putting a lot of nitrogen into those soils too.
Iceland doesn't have a fuel shortage, but I'm thinking burning for biomas.
As several people have posted here already, in time, after Alaskan Lupine has stabilized the soil and added nitrogen to the ground, it would be a great idea to plant the native rowan, birch, aspen and willow trees in some of these lupine patches to help reforest Iceland.
agreed. the plant can be used for ground cover and composted when needed. its like a countless supply of biomatter.
@@woopishk theoretically, but it being dominant and resilliant due to its extreme reproduction, outcompetes all local plants and therefore is bringing more negative effects than benefits
@@dodril17 In the long term it will bring way more positive effects. Soil erosion is killing Iceland and only getting worse without more trees, if you want more bio diversity, and just bio in general lupine will do that. 300 years from now Iceland could be filled with trees again and with so much biomass and diversity everywhere, in 50 years it might just look like a purple hellscape until other plants/trees take over. Of course it will have some negative effects it's invasive and it has had negative effects in other countries, but it's best way for the future and it's not like it's possible to eradicate it anyways. The best way is to control it where it could do harm and let it flourish where it needs to, but acting like it's an overall negative is silly.
If you just want to let Iceland be taken over by the wind and sand, sure Lupin is bad. But Iceland was once an amazing place with so many trees and plants and Lupin will help to recover it
@@dodril17 thankfully, none of the native plants of Iceland are endemic
@@dodril17 Lupine are shade-intolerant, so planting trees behind will help.
wow, my first reaction as an Australian is that you could probably walk through all that WITHOUT getting bitten by a snake which to me is a truly amazing thing .....
fCLEF007
I think the same thing here in the Southwest with any area of grassland--rattlesnakes, you know.
Fellow Aussie with the exact same thought 😂
my boyfriend was telling me the same thing yesterday when we were out on a wooded property foraging. Snakes just are not a huge concern in Alaska.
😂😂😂😂lol you know what my Aussie friends say you know Australia don't have much crime like some countries but we have thugs wildlife 😂😂😂 lol
As someone who lives here and have lived here all my life I definitely want to try to tame it more, it truly is everywhere and will just choke out other species of flowers. It also is a mess once it dies
Really?? How so?
Question? I was thinking about visiting Iceland in March? Is that a bad time of year? Should I visit in summer? Is there a big difference?
@@natrone23 Local here, personally I recommend summer, it is a lot warmer. but if you'd rather come when it is snow, I'd recommend some time in the winter. although I have been noticing a lot less snow at least these past two or three years. also be prepared if you decide to come during the winter.
Yeah, lupines gone to seed are definitely not pretty.
@@DavidMcFarner the plant dries out as a tube so even when they dead they still stand and off a very Hollywood depiction of a famine
Those Plants grows almost everywhere here in Sweden, especially along roads and in (former) meadow areas. They are considered as a invasive species and a serious pest, outcompeting endangered species. As they fixate nitrogen in the soil they terraform the environment in a way that outcopmpete a lot of species that are depending on less nutrient soil. Sadly its not realistic to limit the expasion at this stage. Some other seriously invasive species are eg Canadian goldenrod, Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed and American skunk cabbage
Knot weed is a menace!
They also ruin the soil in the future for low-nitrogen adapted species sadly and their seeds are very numerous
it is a different species of lupine though
Lupines were the first plant to establish on the ash fallout of Mt St Helens, thus their subsequent role in soil remediation. curiously though due to this nature they also accumulate phosphorous and other mineral/nutrients beside being a nitrogen fixer. alas, the edible lupines probably aren’t near as cold hardy..
This plant is EVERYWHERE in Finland. It sure looks nice but it kills the native plants because nothing can compete with this thing.
Try biological control with insect 🐝🦋 only feed in them not the natives plants ☘️
It's a huge problem here in Finland too. The lupines are taking over the areas where domestic Finnish flower species used to grow such as meadows, wiping out all of the domestic plants snd flowers from then, which is also making some insect species like some butterflies disappear from some areas as they used to need those domestic flowers.
It's really sad. 😥
Maybe milkweed could bring the insects and butterfly's back.
The USA had a KUDZOO problem but somehow they irradiated it. A pest will eventually appear to destroy the invasive species the only thing is WHEN.
Same situation in Sweden, looks nice but utimately a killer of local flora and fauna.
@@bobb.6393
We can't just wait for a pest to arrive. We don't have enough time for that, we have to actively find and or develop a pest to wipe invasive species out.
@@brandon9172 there is always something but what?
@@bobb.6393 i dont know about milkweed because i have read a scientific study that said that milkweed is highly invasive in Europe and a potential hazzard to the native flora. The name of the assessment and study is Risk Assessment of Asclepias syriaca
Very interesting! Maybe it could help to plant trees among these lupines. The shadow of the growing trees could reduce the lupines over decades
Might work in the open fields of Iceland, but in Finland and Sweden they mostly spread in roadsides and you need a safety zone with no trees by roads...
start with bushes and other forms of ground cover. perhaps cranberries or blueberries.
@@ginaslevinsky8906 The domestic blueberry, or bilberry, doesn't grow on tall shrubs like american blueberries, but much closer to the ground. That's why they're being overrun by the lupines which are much taller. And cranberries I believe only grow in wetlands like bogs and mires.
@@hin_hale these are just some ideas I pulled out of thin air. There's got to be some suitable ground cover and bushes
@@ginaslevinsky8906
I would think that the native rowan, birch, willow and aspen trees would be good choices to use after the Alaskan Lupine itself has enriched the soil.
Dennis Moore would be stoked.
Damn! You beat me to it, LOL.
Looks like it's there to stay no matter what humans think abut it.
It's not very often that an invasive has such a benefit as well as a detriment. Thankyou for throwing this video in just because it's worth sharing!
Don't know if it's exactly the same, but I think the Kudzu in the states is also both a detriment and benefit and was used to prevent soil erosion too!
The succulent ice plant was introduced on the west coast USA for its benefits but now is a detriment
As an Australian we have experience with these kind of things. Recommend introducing moose to eat the Lupines, then will probably need bears to eat the surplus moose.
parodying the time australians intruduced the rabbit and then the cat to take care of the rabbit?
@@IAOIceland1984 yes that was one moment of geniusness. The best effort though was the introduction of the cane toad, to eat the cactoblastus moth, which was introduced, to eat the prickly pear cactus, which was introduced. Turned out the moth prefers to eat sugar cane and the cane toad can’t reach the moths. So now we have all three in vast numbers.
@@davidcatanach2620 hey we both got it in common that people in the past that knew nothing about ecology effed us over
@@IAOIceland1984 yes! But I would swap lupines for the cane toads any day. Or the wild cats which decimate the native birds, or the rabbits which decimate crops.
@@davidcatanach2620 yeah, fair enough
This plant grows native in Oregon and anytime I clear out the blackberrys and black raspberrys and shrubs and bushes from my property, the thing that grows In is the lupine! My whole property is covered in it until the blackberrys and stuff outgrow it but its spreads through seeds and through roots so even if you remove all the plants it will always come back!
It's the perfect temperate ecological band-aide. Wherever there is a disturbance in the land, lupine covers it to prevent erosion, fertilizes it, and conditions it for the next succession plant.
Apparently it is sorta-kinda edible. Lupinus nootkatensis is listed as toxic in some places but several others say the seeds can be eaten if cooked, and at least one website says the roots can be eaten raw or cooked although it warns "raw root should not be eaten since they contain toxic alkaloids and will cause a drunken-like state if eaten in excess"
In Canada, all of the troublesome weeds that require the use of herbicides in agriculture are all imported, mostly from Europe.
lol, in the states as well. Not only in the fertile cropland . Even the Tumbleweed in the Southwest came from east Europe
obviously a difficult problem to deal with. probably very time- consuming and expensive to try and eliminate it all and replace it with native plants that will perform the same function.
here in the south we have lots of issues with invasive kudzu, which grows very rapidly in the humidity and takes over any local trees and bushes, killing them eventually. once something like this has become established it's practically impossible to get rid of completely 😒
Fun fact, kudzu is edible when young, which is why it was brought here
@@chubbygardengnome you can also make jelly from the flowers i believe 😄
Same with European blackberries(called "Himalayan" for some odd reason) in the northwest USA. Thousands of acres of habitat basically destroyed, buried in brambles. They are more controllable than kudzu once the bulk is cut away, but the state stopped fineing people for noxious weeds some years ago and enough jerks just let their properties act as huge seed repositories that responsible landowners can barely keep up even with the use of herbicides. (They don't even fine nurseries for selling known invasive exotic species....)
Yeah - it completely covers fences and tries all over here in my part of TX
Here in Florida there are a lot of invasive plants. But in somewhere like Iceland where few plants are adapted, I can see how a very-well-adapted plant might take over.
People don’t even realize how tumbleweed is Eurasian…
I've seen videos of the tumbleweed piles
Reminds me of how people brought bamboo to the USA for use as fishing poles and now in some areas it has taken over the land .
Use them in everything then!
You didn't mention that it is actually an edible bean. It is very difficult to process so it is safe to eat, but the Italians (my genetic background) eat Lupini beans frequently. Even though it is not a fruit, you should do a little research and try Lupini beans. They are fun to pop out of their skin and eat, and I loved them as a child and still eat them occasionally.
Lupini beans are great, love the salty ones in the jar. I believe this lupine doesn't have an edible bean to it though..
@@WeirdExplorer
Interesting. I grow them in my front yard and they definitely have beans. Each little flower produces a bean when they mature. The squirrels usually eat them.
Lupinus nootkatensis is poisonous do not eat them please, the Inuppiaat used them as poison :-) do your researchs before putting in your mouths
@@surrealist1976
All lupini beans have toxins, even the ones you buy in a jar of brine at the grocery store. The key is how they are prepared, and I believe I mentioned that in my original post. But your warning to others is well founded.
@@WeirdExplorer The seed sizes are much different.
too much of a good thing! lovely plant
I love your videos so much. I'm studying horticulture and I love learning about plants and how they are eaten around the world from you.
Thank you for this video ! 😊🌼
Really enjoying the new series!
I'm not Icelandic, but I would say that it is great, as it enriches soil and reverses Icelands massive "deserts", and enables next step, forest. Soil is created from the air, binding CO2 and helping climate change. Then you cover Iceland with thick forests later, Making it less windy, and way more productive....
MrZnarffy
I was thinking something very similar. Let the Alaskan Lupine do its work of soil improvement, and, then, plant native Icelandic aspen, rowan, birch and willow trees amongst the lupines in the fields.
@@RCSVirginia precisely.. Then later on you can put in the natural pest control, goats, to eat the much fewer areas overgrown with lupines.. Finally you restore the ecosystem the way you want it...
@@MrZnarffy goats don't eat this lupine, it is toxic
@@mytech6779 As far as I can tell it's uncertain. Goats and Livestock can eat some, but not huge amounts.. Goats are known to eat just about anything, even plants that are toxic to others. However don't know any scientific article about testing that specifically. No matter, once dense pine forest takes over lupine density goes down drastically- If you've ever been in an old pure pine forest you would know basically nothing survives but pine..
@@MrZnarffy I am in the native range for Alaskan lupine, it will grow among conifer trees, though not as dense due to reduced light.
It also takes over road sides here in Finland. Nothing likes eating it, so it gets left untouched. bumblebees love pollinating it though, helping it in its conquest on the land.
I think it's okay to expand your channel beyond fruit. Plants in general are a fun topic to learn about. Your channel is almost like a travel documentary exploring plant life. I say go for it.
Odinson42
Yes, bring on the flowers!
oooh! more videos like this please :)
lol you're in Víkursandar; the Lupine is a double edged sword but if the wind blew, and the weather was dry, you didn't get to experience a sandstorm
Wow, while serving at Naval Air Station Keflavik in 1979-80 there weren’t any lupine plants that I recall! Iceland was just beginning to try large scale reforesting. What a sight.
GOATS! Goats are the herbivore with the best resistance to poisonous plants like Alaskan Lupine. With selective breeding or genetic engineering perhaps a goat can be developed that is completely resistant to it. This would give a way to control this invasive plant while also producing useful animal products from the goats themselves.
Beautiful!
I would love to see more videos on plants as whole like this!
beautiful flowers
We love it here in alaska
An endless field of flowers!
And the reforestation is basically done by using foreign tree species. Alaskan origin of sitka spruce, lodgepole pine and black cottonwood. These thrive so much better than most of the European species with any origin they've tried. Once totally destroyed nature could be restored this way too. Of course the local birch is planted massively and aspen is nice too. I don't know how much it is used. Grazing is still a huge problem.
Jussi Lähteenmäki
Allowing the Alaskan Lupin to improve the soil and, then, planting native Icelandic trees such as birches, willows, rowans and aspens could give those trees a better chance for survival. The lupines do not appear to be on grazing lands anyway, at least, not in this video. Of course, the young trees would have to be protected from sheep.
@@RCSVirginia The soil improvement and erosion prevention is the reason why I think the lupin is there. Still much depends on the grazing. It keeps some areas quite arid.
I get it, I deal with a lot of weeds in the garden all summer. I got a ton of compost last year to amend the soil, come this last fall I had a new weed start popping up, now 2/3 of the garden is completely overgrown. It’s the most frustrating and bazaar thing I’ve seen in my garden. I found out it’s going to happen every year, all because I brought in some compost.
I think that they just need to reintroduce more plants to compete with them and it may not be as much of an issue, Iceland is for the most part a landscape that was devastated by the Viking who cut down all of the forests that where once on it, so at this point its almost a clean slate and they just need to decide what they want the landscape to look like in the future. You’ll never remove all of the lupine the only soltution is to introduce more plants to compete in the system and add more diversity.
In some parts of Iceland at the right time of year entire mountain are colored purple with this plant.
looks like it's there to stay, for better or worse
Merry Christmas from Texas 🤠
I used to live in Norway and they grew all up my drive, I thought they were so beautiful in all colours and the bumble bees love them. I live them so much I've planted them in my garden in England but they're not really establishing themselves here.
It is important for the process of succession that some pioneer species take over and condition the land for the arrival of other species. Trees usually need some ground cover for their seeds to be able to survive. Stabilizing and adding nitrogen to the soil is helpful towards rebuilding forests. This looks out of control though. Was there any plan at all?
From wikipedia: "The initial expectation was for the Nootka lupine to retreat gradually along with increased fertility of the soil and give way for other species. This is evident on sites in Iceland where the lupine was introduced early, such as in Heiðmörk near Reykjavík.[10] However, plant succession is towards a forb-rich grassland, often dominated by the invasive species Anthriscus sylvestris, meaning that careful management of lupine is necessary to prevent it from colonizing areas where its presence is not desirable.[11]"
@@timmeh87 The thing is, you don’t want succession to happen everywhere. If we would just leave it all alone nature would put forest everywhere. So the „most natural“ landscape is actually poor in biodiversity. You want to disrupt some places so other species can flourish and we have rich biodiversity.
FINNALY a commentator who does not anthropomorphise plants and feel offended by the lack of "diversity".
@@odefinierad There are maybe people who do that, but lets not forget that a huge biodiversity is an enormous factor to resilience of life in general on the planet, so we actually should strive to increase it or keep it at a high level.
@@venceremosallende422 That is one theory. The other theory is that other large mammals (grazing herbivores) that shaped the landscape and created a mosaic of forest/open grassslands were mostly driven to extinction by humans hunting them. So only now that they're gone, when you leave the landscape, everything turns to forests. Animals such as the Mammoth, European bison, Aurochs, giant deer, etc
Very beautiful! Also, crazy to contemplate how far it’s spread.
It really is!
Oooh! Iceland! I used to live in Keflavik when it was a U.S. naval base! I loved living in Iceland! My favorite local food was the dried fish chips! They also have kefir, and it’s delicious! Any plans to try the hot springs out? My mom was allergic to sulfur, so we never got to visit them.
Sounds like a great experience. We went to the blue lagoon, technically not a hot spring, but people think it is 😅
I was there as a Merchant Seaman. I understand that base was hard duty. No dependents or souses, and a limit on the amount of personnel, so people had to fill several roles. AND were subject Icelandic customs inspection ... I can't recall if both coming and going. To have learned this as a beaded hippie seaman, is a typical story, a voice from home in a cafe for a lonely GI. It was early summer, he had a car and a rare day off, so he took me Xmas shopping out in the countryside, ... The only twist on this lovely classic tale is that he was not a young draftee, he was like in his late 40's and a Light Colonel. Nice day. BTW sure an Icelandic sweater if that's your style, and you got use for it, like sailing near the Arctic, but their blankets were more appreciated as gifts, for years. Toasty warm.
Merry Christmas
In Ontario we have native ones and invasive ones
They only take over in wet Fields....not all areas but i guess some dryer or mixed areas they can do well and take over areas
I have some in my garden and I collect the seeds best i can before they spread too much but its not too bad if you dig or weed them out early
I usually have people wanting seeds or plants
Some people have a hard time getting them started
They like full sun and usually the plant die completely back or close to it when it gets hot here
But will come back by the root
The roots can have thoes nitrogen fixing nodes ive seen them many times but bacteria in the soil needs to be present before these form i believe
Great video
Finland has those. It's a beautiful plant.
Very pretty
Lupin is so adaptive to barren land that is considered pioneer plant. Besides there is commercial potential for the beans that can be exploited, may be?
the mountains in the distance sometimes look purple due to these plants
Well fellas, grab your shimmer buckets and make some terraformers, we got work to do
I hate them because they take over ditches wherever they're planted in gardens nearby! I remember seeing them for the first time years ago.
I live in Newfoundland btw.
If I recall correctly, some species of Lupine are used to make flour. Do you know if this specific one is edible?
No. Alaskan Lupine is very poisonous. It also causes birth defects in livestock. One species that has a high resistance is goats, however. So perhaps they can develop a goat that is completely resistant.
If it fixes soil erosion, plant trees in the middle and watch Iceland grow forests again!
I am told that in Germany they're harvesting the seeds and extract the oil and among other things make icecream out of it.
If this plant stabalizes this bare soil you showed before the Lupins came along that might be a good thing. If it fixes nitrogen in oil that was othewise useless....might be a good thing too.
The question one could ask is:
Under Icelands unique climatic conditions what useful plants or shrubs, perhaps trees could be planted on this now improved soil, on this kind of acerage. In Canada we have color variants from white to pink to this purple.
I also noticed that here they grow more in open spaces.
So the question arises what could be interplanted with lupins that could compede with their light equirement and subdue them that way.
I think other invasive species are way more of a problem such as Japanese Knotweed
It's all over New Zealand too. They aren't too happy about it as it's not native.
that is one impressively successful invasive species!
Nitrogen fixing, soil stabilizing, bee food. Elsewhere it is a bare-ground pioneer species. Tall grasses and shrubs eventually crowd it out.
There's so many my brain can't quite imagine the scale, even when I'm seeing it.
That’s so interesting, here in Illinois prairie lupine is a rare plant that only grows in sand prairies. Invasive species are difficult. If they take over in a monoculture it pushes out native species of plants and animals and can collapse whole ecosystems. It’s worth fighting against tho one will never “win” the war.
a plant that turns deserts in to flower meadows.
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, et cetera, et cetera.
Merry Christmas Jared. Do you have any plans to come to British Columbia Canada in the new year? If so let me know I'd love to go foraging with you
It is so pretty and we have it so much on Finland but it is so invasive :(
This flower is a rogue cousin of our state flower, the Texas bluebonnet (which is another lupine).
We have lupine here in Maine, although it doesn't seem to be taking over like in Alaska. I've tried introducing them on our property with no luck, but I recently read an interesting way in which the seeds need to be planted.
Never thought I'd see something that looks so similar to a field of bluebonnets in Iceland of all places
The worse problem with Lupinus is that it can't be properly digested by domestic animals since it contains some toxic compounds. So it can be only silaged to utilize. And you may guess farmers are quite unhappy with this fact. Otherway, it is a beautiful and useful plant. Realy improves soil.
I think that I've seen small patches of similar flowers along some roads in New Zealand's North Island.
on behalf of Alaska, this Alaskan apologizes
thank you.
You could get lot of lupine seed meal, and feed some salmon with it.
What is controlling it's numbers in Alaska?
Forests.
It's such a tough one.. it looks amazing when it flower. Weighed up though, I'm glad it doesn't grow very much here in the UK.. I guess it needs a more pronounced cold season than we have. Probably for the best. I think Iceland should probably make it their national flower though.
Looks like the beloved Texas Blue Bonnets ,
Sounds like it just needs some competition. Something bigger than would shade it out would be apt.
shocked I didn't run into any youtubers while I was in iceland over the summer 🤣
It's like the Rescuers Down Under intro except with lupines.
Can you eat the seeds like lupini beans? I love lupini beans, even if they are a pain to prepare. Packed with protein as well.
being from the Yukon (the part of Canada next to Alaska) where they are a healthy part of the ecosystem I don't think lupines "loo-pins" are pretty, nor do I think they're ugly. They are poisonous though.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but beauty shouldn't be the deciding factor regarding whether or not to respond to an invasive species. What else can Iceland do to fight soil erosion? What other plants and practices can be utilized?
Extinguishing an invasive species is really hard, but there must be a way to reintroduce other native species into the ecosystem again to control the lupines.
This reminds me. I need to log into New world and gather hemp
Huh that's interesting. I don't know how I feel about invasive plants like this.
If you want to enjoy bloom of lupin, but don't want it's spread, simply mow it after blooming ends (but, before visible fruits apprear)
In a few decades there will be enough topsoil build-up to support the forests that used to cover Iceland.
It could be a key step to regenerating forest
I'll take flowers over desolate waste land
Beautiful plant,how many I can cut Lupins to feed livestock?
Glad you covered this, good to know! Here in northern Minnesota, some lupine is invasive too. I love the way they look tho! Are there any active measures being taken to clear land of it for natives? Didn't the vikings cut down all the trees that ruined the soil in the first place 😂 at least its fixing nitrogen & creating soil. that alone will probably be fixed by time by allowing other trees & plants to take root. thennn succession would take care of it all! :) Still a very strange landscape.
Looks like Texas Bluebonnets, both from the genus Lupinus. I would take them over the bare moonscape look.
Invasive species are a fact of life. It’s pretty hard to put the cat back in the bag.
I wonder what makes it so prolific in Iceland in particular. Lupins are grown here in the UK ornamentally and you very occasionally might see one in the wild. But they never spread prolifically, unlike many other introduced plants.
A big problem in Norway too.
Bring in the sheep!
N Southern England the Himalayan Balsam has totally taken over riverbanks - each plant can produce 7,000 seeds which are carried by the wind or the river to new spots. Now impossible to eradicate!
I live in climate zone 10a, the other end of the climate zone, I have a very hard time getting lupine to grow. The invasivness of the lupine you showed is overwhelming. The problem generally with something so invasive is that the native wildlife may not be adapted to using it.
good thing it will make forest eventually
Try the Liputi tree of the Philippines.it might evolved into high Bush blueberry there!why there is no snow there?
It needs to go, yet it also needs to stay.
Which for me as a native icelander it means we have to manage it and try to controll its spread better. Cause for now all we do is talk and / or complain about it. Which doesn't really do anything to fix the problem.
Saying that it "helps" with nitrogen is not accurate. Nitrogen fixation (like other nutrient loads) has a negative effect on biodiversity on nutrient-poor land! Many valuable and sensitive species can not compete when more nutrients are added. Nitrogen fixation is good on arable land (where crops are grown) but bad on natural or semi-natural land.
So natural nitrogen fixers in their natural habitat is bad? OK.
@@garmancathotmailcom No. Invasive nitrogen fixers or nitrogen fixers that spread uncontrollably due to human disturbance are bad.
Do you even know the natural history of Iceland? Do you know why it is barren, nutrient poor, and the only native plants left are marginal and pioneering? Do you think this is what Iceland always has been? Here's a clue. Lupine thrives in disturbed areas. It will not survive in a forest. In fact, Lupine creates the beginnings for reforestation. What does this say that Iceland once had and that it is its natural condition?