When summer comes to Sweden, you see many Lupinus polyphyllus (Lupinus) along with roads and river banks. It seems that they like moist areas near the lakes and rivers. There are more than 50000 lakes in the whole of Sweden, and more the whole land will be very moist after the snow starts melting in the summer.
So, Lupinus loves Sweden!
At first, I thought that they were so pretty especially when I drive a car along with a river or a lake, some areas are pretty covered with Lupinus.
When you drive a car for a while, and if you see countless Lupinus flowers along with the road, you'll be amazed!
It's so beautiful!
But, recently, I have learned that this beautiful and so fast-growing plant is categorized as invasive species.
They say that Lupinus originally come from the North American region, and now more than 5 countries categorize the species as invasive plants.
Lupinus grow so fast and other native plants are losing their areas to grow. Ironically, many people do not know it is categorized as invasive plants so that some people prefer to grow it in their gardens.
It was not Lupinus' fault that they were somehow transplanted to other regions like New Zealand and Scandinavia, and first, they like it because they are pretty. But, once people realize that Lupinus are bad for native species, they have started to weed them out.
Lupinus reminds me of the immigration problem we face today in many countries including in Japan.
Japan has decided to accept "skilled students" as immigrants aka "students who are acquiring special skills such as home service, medical, and construction work, etc", however, a few years later when we face Covid19, the situation has changed that the Japanese government cannot accept them, and " skilled students" have to leave since there are fewer jobs we can offer.
I know that Lupinus grow so rapidly, and if we do not protect native plants, the whole ecosystem will be collapsed. But, I feel that the immigration policy is very similar to what people are trying to do to Lupinus.
I believe that once we agree to accept something "new" or "different", it's impossible to keep the original habitat or atmosphere. I'm not sure, but I'm unprofessional to think that is it that important to keep the " original" or "native" habitat!?
I'm not a biologist, so I can say whatever I want even though it's very eco destructive, but I feel that Lupinus covered side roads I enjoyed during the summer holiday in Sweden is a new Swedish atmosphere which I have started liking. Well, we will see.
