Stories, brimming with righteous outrage and indignation, about foreign immigrants “coming over here and stealing British jobs, and/or just generally scrounging and making the place look untidy” seem to be standard fare for much of the right leaning press.
However this piece from the Telegraph is (to my mind) a slightly more whimsical variation on that theme, or at least it’s not spewing xenophobic bile, which is always a plus.
Hardly a gardener's favourite, will the dandelion, and other wild flowers, soon be nostalgic memories?
It concerns a Danish invasion of our green & pleasant land, the likes of which we’ve not seen since 1013, when some bloke called Sweyn Forkbeard turned up with his son Cnut, & a bunch of mates, to ruin King Ethelred the Unready’s day.
Fear not though, this isn’t news of some recent influx of Scandinavians looking to plunder our currently shaky economy; this threat is altogether far more floral in nature!
Yes, this is the news that Danish Scurvy Grass, a small plant with white flowers, that’s usually found in coastal salt marshes, is outcompeting native British flowers & apparently taking over the verges of our nations motorways!
The Danish plant actually arrived in the UK during the middle ages, and as its name suggests was quite welcome at the time, being used by sailors to stave off Scurvy, a condition caused by vitamin C deficiency. However, many native British plants find the conditions next to major roads less than ideal, whereas the hardy marsh flower has evolved to thrive in harsh conditions & is now out-competing native wild flowers; Years like this, where snow fall has lead to wide scale salting of roads, are even better for the invader, since most plants don’t deal with salty conditions at all well.
Even the ever tenacious dandelion appears is losing out to the Scurvy grass! and if I’m honest I’m actually rooting for the Scurvy grass on that one, but then my battle with the dandelions in my garden has been a frustratingly long running conflict; my enemy’s enemy is my friend, and all that.
Still, with most of the countryside given over to agriculture, the nation’s verges are one of the more common refuges left for the Britain’s wildflowers, and there are concerns that we may see some species disappear altogether if the Danish rampage continues.
If it was just the dandelion I doubt anyone would mind, but it would be a shame if, in the future, the only way to see some of the nation’s flowers was to order them from a florist.
Tags: Environment, flowers & plants