So I heard my friend call an invasive plant a displaced relative and when pressed on it they basically said that the plants didn’t choose to come here and they are victims of colonialism. Invasive implies they aren’t welcome, you wouldn’t say that the enslaved people brought over to the new world are invasive so why would you a plant? Then they said human agriculture was invasive because it’s monoculture and doesn’t allow other plants to grow, which you know fair point. So what’s the consensus is my friend an idiot or am I an idiot?

Edit: I just texted my friend, they said they got the concept from this book. Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science

  • chairmantau [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Sometimes “invasive” species can be helpful, honestly I really like the displaced relative term. Imagine an Italy without tomatoes, or an India without peppers, certain plants just find a niche in places far from their native land.

    • DialecticalShaman [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If they're beneficial, they're probably not invasive. You seem to be taking "invasive" to mean "non-native" or "introduced". Read @InevitableSwing original comment again. Only some introduced species are invasive.

      Yes food crops were imported to Eurasia from the Americas. Did they escape cultivation and begin proliferating in the wild and disrupting their new ecosystem? They're only invasive if the answer to the previous question is yes. Anyway I've never heard of a food crop doing that and I'd suspect that a plant's properties which make it a good food crop make it poorly suited to wild proliferation in a new ecosystem. So that it's a rare occurrence.

      Most invasive plants seem to be spread either by accident or by careless ornamental gardening.

      Their are other questions though.

      Should we seek to eliminate all introduced species? Not just invasive ones? I say no, or at least, it should be a very low ecological priority. Since they are not invasive, they are by definition not harming their ecosystem.

      Should we eliminate introduced plants as food crops? Again, no. Not only are they not proliferating and harming the ecosystem, they're providing food for us! If anything, cultivating a food plant beyond it's native range might even be helpful, because the farmer might be out of range of the plant's native pests and have an easier time growing as a result.