Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses practices and discourses in the municipality of Dalarna, Sweden where a war on lupines, considered invasive species, is going on. Lupines are described as dangerous intruders, out-conquering "native" plants, destroying the natural heritage and the traditional cultural environment.

Paper long abstract:

Invasive species are plants or animals introduced to areas outside their original range, often through human care. The last decades, the concept have attracted much attention from authorities, natural sciences, media and individuals. The discourse revolve around notions of threat, belonging, control, national/local heritage, and human responsibility toward nature in a changing world.

The lupine (also known as lupinus or lupine) is categorized as an invasive species in Sweden. It came to Sweden from North America in the first half of the 19th century as a garden plant, but have made a conceptual trajectory. What was then a beautiful and possibly useful flower is now seen as an alien element in the Swedish flora, and authorities and local groups work to limit the spread of it.

This paper focuses the municipality of Dalarna (Dalecarlia), where the authorities have been extra active in a war on lupines. On their website, in pamphlets and at official meetings, the municipal describes Lupines as dangerous intruders, that out-conquer other plants, threat the natural heritage, and spoil the traditional cultural environment. A challenge for the authorities has been the fact that people in general find lupines beautiful and appealing.

The analysis scrutinizes the practices and discourses in the municipality's when they re-interpret the lupine as unwanted. Applying the concept of assemblage, the (new) status of the lupine as a dangerous and ugly feature in the landscape stand forward as an (possible) effect of relations between species, other objects, emotions and different spirits of time.