• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    3611 months ago

    Try doing that in Iceland. They’re both very aware and conflicted about invasive species up there. Lupin is invasive and covering the country and also building soil from nothing, Pine trees are invasive and the quickest way to get treecover that is desperately needed.

    Makes for weird discussions, I guess Iceland is such and extreme case that nobody really knows if they should be saving the ecosystem it had managed to scratch together before we turned up or if they should be trying to rush a healthier ecosystem with imports (Iceland was pretty thin and fragile even before humans and we wrecked what little there was)

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      811 months ago

      In California, we have Tumbleweed, and it’s actually really useful for stabilizing/fertilizing loose, disturbed soils and making shelter for native grasses and plants to start growing near. They also love to fuck with cars by jumping out in front of them at every opportunity.

      • @not_that_guy05
        link
        English
        611 months ago

        In California they are a danger to the environment. They can spread fires quicker and spread it to different areas. No bueno.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          811 months ago

          The California Invasive Plant Council found that Tumbleweeds had no meaningful impact on wildfire risk one way or the other.

          • @mrbaby
            link
            English
            811 months ago

            Of course a council full of invasive plants would say that

            • @WhiskyTangoFoxtrot
              link
              English
              611 months ago

              While waving a flaming Deku stick around probably isn’t safe I don’t think you can blame California’s wildfires on a pointy-eared kid with a floppy hat.

              • @not_that_guy05
                link
                English
                511 months ago

                My friend your paper states

                Plants may add oxalate leachate to soil, making phosphorous more available and facilitating colonization. Can increase fire hazard, especially along tree rows and fences when dead plants build up.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  2
                  edit-2
                  11 months ago

                  Direct quote from the same item:

                  Increases fire hazard (though may be a hazard primarily to human landscapes).

                  In other words, it doesn’t meaningfully contribute to the overall ecological fire hazard, you’re mostly talking highway veg fires and stuff, which happen with or without tumbleweeds.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      211 months ago

      Are there many species there that are specific to Iceland which would be harmed by lupines and pines taking over?

      If it’s most an amalgamation of stuff that commonly found elsewhere I think it would be fine.

      If pine seeds came to Iceland on the wind 100 years before humans got there it would have been considered native. Most the seeds of all the other stuff got there the same way I imagine, unless they’ve been isolated since the island split from a continent somewhere.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        111 months ago

        Well there’s the native birch forests, which get outcompeted. But given the vikings killed them off it’s mostly just the opportunity cost of planting pine over birch. There was a bit of both, so it’s not all or nothing of course

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2611 months ago

    If you’re also pointing out cool native plants and their uses and benefits you’re amazing

    also check out crime pays but botany doesn’t on youtube

      • CommunityLinkFixerBotB
        link
        fedilink
        English
        111 months ago

        Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]

    • @Aremel
      link
      English
      811 months ago

      I would also like to give a vote for Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t.

      • theotherone
        link
        fedilink
        511 months ago

        I’ve only seen a few episodes but the desert plants/succulents content was just riveting.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Dat guy has sure got da way wit werds right? Who’d da thought Chicago accents could be so goddamn soothing.

  • @MuhammadJesusGaySex
    link
    English
    2111 months ago

    I mean down here we just embrace the kudzu. Ok, that’s not true. Down here if you sit for too long, but not as long as you’d think. The kudzu embraces you.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      511 months ago

      Kudzu is a wildly useful plant. I sometimes regret never taking the opportunity to forage it when I lived in Georgia.

      • JJROKCZ
        link
        English
        511 months ago

        Yes but it’s still invasive and shouldn’t be there

        • Draconic NEO
          link
          fedilink
          English
          411 months ago

          I mean it’s already there and isn’t going anywhere, might as well make the best of a bad situation and get some good out of it.

  • ComradeSharkfucker
    link
    fedilink
    English
    911 months ago

    We should hike together. I genuinely love hiking with people who won’t shut up about plants, rocks, fungi, or animals

  • @not_that_guy05
    link
    English
    811 months ago

    Me looking at all the invasive grass in socal…

  • @weariedfae
    link
    English
    611 months ago

    Oh hey, it’s me. But seriously fuck mullein.

  • @Nurgle
    link
    English
    611 months ago

    Pointing out earth worms are invasive in many places has been my go to recently.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    611 months ago

    Tree of Heaven. I dislike this tree and point out its growth to friends and family when we pass by them all the time.

    • @1847953620
      link
      English
      311 months ago

      Gotta have those high-capacity magazines

  • krimsonbun
    link
    fedilink
    English
    311 months ago

    The species aren’t invasive the people that took them from their natural habitat and then abandoned them are.