Pick lupines to save Lithuania's native plants, authorities urge

Invasive lupines are blooming across Lithuania, but botanists are urging people to pick them, not for their beauty, but to save native flora. Botanist Kęstutis Obelevičius from the Vytautas Magnus University Botanical Garden explains that lupines are an invasive species that aggressively outcompetes local plants. He recounts how one meadow in the Kaišiadorys district, once home to four species of orchids, was completely taken over by lupines within seven years, leaving only a few grasses and weeds.

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This is an invasive plant that overshadows local plants. They spread quite quickly, forming dense thickets.

The dense lupine growth also leads to significant soil nitrification, accumulating nitrogen that promotes the growth of nitrogen-loving plants like nettles and couch grass. This process starves out smaller, less competitive native species. Obelevičius advises picking lupines during their flowering period before they can produce seeds. While lupines are perennial, consistently cutting them down before they seed can gradually reduce their population over time.

Vilnius city municipality has echoed this call, encouraging citizens to "combine aesthetic pleasure with a useful mission – to contribute to reducing the spread of an invasive species." By picking lupine flowers, people can effectively limit the plant's spread and curb its invasion. The municipality shared a photo of a lupine bouquet decorating their office, with commenters also sharing their own arrangements.

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Only through my own research can I say that once in a meadow in the Kaišiadorys district, there grew at least four species of plants from the orchid family. When I returned to that meadow after 7 years, I found only lupines there, I did not find any orchid family plants, those beautiful orchids of ours.

The Environmental Protection Department warns that lupines increase soil nitrogen, leading to the decline of other species. In gardens and around homes, lupines should be dug up or mown regularly before seeds mature. However, removal is challenging due to their deep roots, sometimes reaching 1.5 meters, and their ability to regrow even from root fragments. Repeated mowing before seeding can eventually eradicate them from an area. Animals do not eat lupines, and their seeds are not a food source for mice or birds. The department suggests herbicides as a method of control. Spent lupines should be composted or disposed of in mixed municipal waste bins to prevent seed dispersal. The viability of lupine seeds means caution is needed when using soil where they have grown. Cultivating ornamental perennial lupine varieties is also prohibited, with fines for growing invasive species.

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We invite the public to combine aesthetic pleasure with a useful mission – to contribute to reducing the spread of an invasive species. By picking lupine flowers, we effectively limit the spread of this plant by seeds and stop its invasion.