Every Plant in its Place

January 17, 2016 6:06 PM

Trojan Horse attack on native lupine. At Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, California, a fierce battle is taking place under the oblivious, peeling noses of beachgoers. It’s a battle between an invasive plant and a native plant, but with a new twist. The two plants, European beachgrass (aka marram grass) and Tidestrom’s lupine, are not in direct competition, and yet the beachgrass is helping to drive the lupine over the cliff. While in New Zealand a close relative, the yellow bush lupine is working in concert with the same marram grass to threaten the the native Pikao (aka golden sand sedge) in sand dune environments and Rusells Lupin, a garden hybrid that was planted for it's pretty looks is invading New Zealand's braided river environments.
posted by Long Way To Go (9 comments total)

Where's Dennis Moore when you need him?
posted by Soulfather at 6:48 PM on January 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

Why can't we all just get along?
posted by AugustWest at 7:03 PM on January 17, 2016

Where's Dennis Moore when you need him?
Where's Lupin the Third when you need him?
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:15 PM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Stamp out the deer mice by releasing wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes.
posted by ryanrs at 12:47 AM on January 18, 2016

then gorillas
posted by ryanrs at 12:47 AM on January 18, 2016

As a non-ecologist I'm always baffled by invasive species. Notwithstanding differences in predation, the idea that a plant or animal might be more successful in a niche it wasn't adapted to seems to me like my rhythmless self moving to Rio and becoming leader of a samba school.
posted by Octaviuz at 6:45 AM on January 18, 2016

...my rhythmless self moving to Rio and becoming leader of a samba school.

More like, the reason you're rhythmless now is because you're living on a ship, rocking on a rough sea, with sandbags tied to your ankles. Sure, you're able to survive well enough, you've adapted to what's holding you back -- and then you set foot on a dance floor on dry land, your sandbags having been left back on the ship. Maybe you're a great dancer, maybe not, but at least the things that have held you back aren't stopping you any more. Invasive species aren't necessarily about a species wildly succeeding in an unfamiliar land, but rather about taking off in a land where the competition that was holding it back -- predators, disease, competition for food -- doesn't exist, so they can run wild.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:10 AM on January 18, 2016

You know who else is an invasive species?
posted by telstar at 10:13 AM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

....my rhythmless self moving to Rio and becoming leader of a samba school.

It's more like you moving to Utah and becoming a leader of a samba school.
posted by acrasis at 10:34 AM on January 18, 2016