Lupins and biodiversity

A Guardian article on the appearance of lupins in the landscape as they flower considers where they were originally from.

They are a variety called Nootka lupin, which is native to Alaska.

The lupins were first introduced in an attempt to hold the country’s dark volcanic soils together. A huge amount of soil was being driven into the Atlantic by ferocious winds and rain each year – a problem that endures today, with two-fifths of land now classified as significantly degraded.

The purple-blue blooms were the brainchild of Hákon Bjarnason, Iceland’s chief forester at the end of the second world war, who had seen them on a trip to Alaska. He believed the plant could stop the earth eroding by repairing the soil and fixing nitrogen into the ground. One day, many hoped, the soil quality would reach a point that could allow the island’s forests to return.

The lupins are an invasive and non-native species.

They flower in June and many locals and visitors like the flowers, but they don't have the desired impact on soil structure.