This Flower Managed to Divide Iceland’s Population
The moment before one lands in Iceland for the first time is usually an odd one. The little plots of land visible from the airplane window are brown and flat, something that reflects the extreme conditions of the land. But it is only after leaving the airport, during the drive towards the capital city of Reykjavik, that the strangeness of the situation increases— everything is purple.
The fields seen from the roads are littered with a most captivating purple flower: the Alaskan lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis). What the usual tourist may not realize, however, is that this flower is much more controversial than they could imagine.
Iceland was settled around 874 AD, and its nature was so heavily exploited that by the 20th century, only one-quarter of its original vegetation remained.
According to the Icelandic Forest Service, 25–40% of Iceland was covered by forest before the first settlers arrived. Today, there are almost no trees in the island nation. There is even a joke amongst Icelanders that goes like this: “If you’re ever lost in an Icelandic forest, all you have to do is stand up.”
Most of Iceland’s green cover was gone, which, along with the extreme environment, caused erosion to become a growing concern for the country.
This led the director of the Icelandic Forest Service, Hákon Bjarnason, to go on a journey to Alaska in 1945 to find plants suitable to revegetate his country. And it was on November 3, 1945, that Bjarnson returned with the Alaskan lupine.
The lupine grew quietly near Reykjavik for 31 years until, in 1976, the seeds started being deliberately spread around the country to strengthen the barren soil. Today, the flower covers around 0.4% of the entire country, the equivalent of 77,127 American football fields.
It sounds like the plan to revegetate Iceland is working, but at what cost?
Many Icelanders claim that the flower is an invasive species and that it should be kept in check. They cite that the lupine is destroying local plants and vegetation.
The lupine is a tall flower; some even reach a meter tall. This, combined with the fact that they grow so closely together, causes the lupines to starve other small plants and moss of crucial sunlight. Despite fortifying the soil, the lupine ends up being a significant threat to the local environment.
Some also argue that the flower is harmful to the view they have from their properties. This is an important point considering that most of Iceland’s territory is suitable for the lupine.
This leads some Icelanders with a more extreme view to take matters into their own hands. There is even a community of people who try to cut the flowers before the seeds are formed, effectively killing the plant.
There is, however, another side to this controversy. The Icelanders in favor of the lupine are also a vocal group. According to Egill Bjarnason’s “Why Iceland is Turning Purple,” a user from a pro-lupine Facebook group made the following statement: “Cut them all they want, I will just visit the same area with a pocket of seeds.”
The image that comes to mind, a middle-aged Icelandic man stealthily making his way to the lupine fields with a pocket of seeds, ready to replant the flowers torn apart by someone with peculiar hate for them, is just lovely to think of.
One of the lupine’s most significant benefits is that it is a nitrogen fixer, which means that it not only protects the soil from erosion, it also leaves the soil more fertile. This is good for other plants and even trees.
A very popular pro-lupine argument is that trees, being taller than a meter, will eventually grow and starve the lupines of light. This would naturally get rid of the lupines in sites where trees are introduced.
The situation of the Alaskan lupine is one every Icelander has an opinion about, with both sides of the argument having strong support. The flower is very divisive for a country known for its friendly and loving locals.
Whether or not the lupines pose a threat to the Icelandic environment, it may be too late to take action against it. When/if a consensus is reached by the Icelanders regarding the flower, whatever it may be, one thing is for certain: the Alaskan lupine will not be leaving Iceland anytime soon.
