Forthcoming
Research Articles

Alien Plants between Practices and Representations: The Cases of European Spruce and Beach Rose in Finland

PDF HTML
  • Harri Uusitalo,
  • Heta Lähdesmäki,
  • Kirsi Sonck-Rautio,
  • Otto Latva,
  • Hannu Salmi,
  • Teija Alenius
Harri Uusitalo
University of Turku
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63845494909721

Published 2024-05-21

Keywords

  • European Spruce,
  • Beach Rose,
  • Plantiness,
  • Belonging,
  • Non-Belonging

How to Cite

Uusitalo, Harri, Heta Lähdesmäki, Kirsi Sonck-Rautio, Otto Latva, Hannu Salmi, and Teija Alenius. 2024. “Alien Plants Between Practices and Representations: The Cases of European Spruce and Beach Rose in Finland”. Plant Perspectives, May. https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63845494909721.

Copyright (c) 2024 Harri Uusitalo, Heta Lähdesmäki, Kirsi Sonck-Rautio, Otto Latva, Hannu Salmi, Teija Alenius

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

In Finland, the European spruce (Picea abies) and the beach rose (Rosa rugosa) have very different cultural resonances and ramifications, but they also have many similarities. In this study, we examine these species through the concept of ‘plantiness’ to reveal the political ecology behind the categories of native and alien, demonstrating the national and biological belonging of said species. We ask why people want to protect certain species and not others – which ultimately amounts to deciding which plants are permitted to exist and which are not. Acknowledging that natural changes occur constantly, we also ask how people come to decide what counts as the ‘status quo’ that should be protected. We create a synthesis from our disciplines: palaeoecology, which focuses on the ecology of the past; cultural history and ethnology, which explore historical and contemporary times; and linguistics, which focuses on a long time period from prehistoric to contemporary times.

PDF HTML

References

  1. Alenius, T., L. Marquer, C. Molinari, M. Heikkilä and A. Ojala. 2021. ‘The environment they lived in: Anthropogenic changes in local and regional vegetation composition in eastern Fennoscandia during the Neolithic’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 30 (4): 489–506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00796-w
  2. Alenius, T., T. Mökkönen, E. Holmqvist and A. Ojala. 2017. ’Neolithic land-use in the Northern Boreal Zone: High-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, South-Eastern Finland’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 26: 469–486. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0606-2
  3. Argüelles, L. and H. March. 2022. ‘Weeds in action: Vegetal political ecology of unwanted plants’. Progress in Human Geography 46 (1): 44–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325211054966
  4. Berkes, F., J. Colding and C. Folke. 2000. ‘Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management’. Ecological Applications 10 (5): 1251–1262.
  5. Berlin, B. 1992: Ethnobiological Classification: Principles of Categorization of Plants and Animals in Traditional Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  6. Brumelis, G., B. Gunnar Jonsson, J. Kouki, T. Kuuluvainen and E. Shorohova. 2011. ‘Forest naturalness in northern Europe: Perspectives on processes, structures and species diversity’. Silva Fennica 45: 807–821. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.446
  7. Cajander, R. 2018. Vanhat tutut ja hankalat vieraat. Tulokaskasvit ja vieraslajit Suomen luonnossa [Old Acquaintances and Troublesome Guests: Newcomer Plants and Alien Species in Finnish Nature]. Helsinki: Maahenki.
  8. Coates, P. 2007. American Perceptions of Immigrant and Invasive Species: Strangers on the Land. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  9. Davis, M.A., M.K. Chew, R.J. Hobbs, A.E. Lugo, J.J. Ewel, G.J. Vermeij, J.H. Brown, M.L. Rosenzweig, M.R. Gardener, S.P. Carroll, K. Thompson, S.T.A. Pickett, J.C. Stromberg, P. Del Tredici, K.N. Suding, J.G. Ehrenfeld, P.J. Grime, J. Mascaro and J.C. Briggs. 2011. ‘Don’t judge species on their origins’. Nature 474: 153–154.
  10. Diekmann, M. 1996. ‘Ecological behaviour of deciduous hardwood trees in Boreo-nemoral Sweden in relation to light and soil conditions’. Forest Ecology and Management 86: 1–14.
  11. Donner, J. 1971. ‘Towards a stratigraphical division of the Finnish Quaternary’. Commentationes Physico-Mathematicae 41: 281–305.
  12. Durand, L. and J. Sundberg. 2022. ‘Monster plants: Vegetal political ecology of Lacadonia schismatica’. Journal of Political Ecology 29: 189–207. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2399.
  13. Ellis, E.C. and N. Ramankutty. 2008. ‘Putting people in the map: Anthropogenic biomes of the world’. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6 (8): 439–47. https://doi.org/10.1890/070062
  14. Fischer, F. 2000. Citizens, Experts, and the Environment: The Politics of Local Ecological Knowledge. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  15. Giesecke, T. 2005. ‘Holocene dynamics of the southern boreal forest in Sweden’. The Holocene 15: 858–872. https://doi.org/10.1191/0959683605hl859ra
  16. Giesecke, T. and K.D. Bennett. 2004. ‘The Holocene spread of Picea abies (L.) Karst. in Fennoscandia and adjacent areas’. Journal of Biogeography 31 (9): 1523–1548. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3554797.
  17. Häkkinen, K. 2004. Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja [Etymological Dictionary of Finnish]. Helsinki: Sanoma Pro.
  18. Head, L., J. Atchison and A. Gates. 2012. Ingrained: A Human Bio-geography of Wheat. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
  19. Heikkilä, M. and H. Seppä. 2010. ‘Holocene climate dynamics in Latvia, eastern Baltic region: A pollen-based summer temperature reconstruction and regional comparison’. Boreas 39: 705–719. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.2010.00164.x
  20. Herring, S.C. 2004. ‘Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online communities’. In S. Barab, R. Kling and J.H. Gray (eds), Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning, pp. 338–376. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511805080.016
  21. Hyvärinen, H. 1975. ‘Absolute and relative pollen diagrams from northernmost Fennoscandia’. Fennia – International Journal of Geography 142 (1): 1–23.
  22. Konttinen, P. 2017. ‘Pikkulin puisto uuteen kuosiin keväällä’ [Renovation of Pikkuli Park in the spring]. Heinäveden lehti (newspaper), 16 February.
  23. Kull, C.A. and H. Rangan. 2015. ‘The political ecology of weeds: A scalar approach to landscape transformations’. In R.L. Bryant (ed.), The International Handbook of Political Ecology, pp. 487–500. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  24. Ikonen, I., M. Kekki and N. Räikkönen. 2009. Jättiputki ja kurtturuusu kuriin Lounais-Suomessa [Keeping Giant Hogweed and Beach Rose under Control in the Southwest of Finland]. Turku: Lounais-Suomen ympäristökeskus.
  25. Jauni, M. and M. Seppälä. 2017. Kotipihan valtaajat. Opas haitallisten vieraslajien torjuntaan [Occupiers of the Home Yard: A Guide to Preventing Harmful Alien Species]. Helsinki: Into.
  26. Jones, O. and P. Cloke. 2002. Tree Cultures: The Place of Trees and Trees in Their Place. Oxford: Berg.
  27. Kasvi, A. 2019. ‘Lukijalta: Kurtturuusu – kansan vihollinen?’ [Beach rose – an enemy of the people?]. Turun Sanomat (newspaper), 5 November. https://www.ts.fi/lukijoilta/4751750 (accessed 28 February 2023).
  28. Laitio-Ramone, J.-P. 2016. ‘Tallberg kertoo luonnonkasveista’ [Tallberg tells about plants in nature]. Kauhajoki-lehti (newspaper), 30 August.
  29. Lehti, L., M. Luodonpää-Manni, J. Harri Jantunen, A.-J. Kyröläinen, A. Vesanto and V. Laippala. 2020. ‘Commenting on poverty online: A corpus-assisted discourse study of the Suomi24 forum’. SKY Journal of Linguistics 33: 7–47.
  30. Liitiä, P. 2006. Kukkien kuningatar. Ruusun huumaava historia [Queen of Flowers: Charming History of the Rose]. Jyväskylä: Atena.
  31. Lorimer, J. 2015. Wildlife in the Anthropocene: Conservation after Nature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  32. Louna-Korteniemi, M. 2019. ‘Lukijalta: Kurtturuusu on luonnon monimuotoisuuden vihollinen – leviää helposti pitkien matkojen päähän’ [Beach rose is the enemy of biodiversity – it spreads around easily]. Turun Sanomat [newspaper], 8 November. https://www.ts.fi/lukijoilta/4758312 (accessed 28 February 2023).
  33. Luttinen, J. 2012. ‘Metsän hahmottaminen ja haltuunotto (1500–1850)’ [Perceiving and controlling nature]. Part I of Heikki Roiko-Jokela (ed.), Ihminen ja metsä – Kohtaamisia arjen historiassa. Helsinki: Metsäkustannus.
  34. Mannering, U., M. Gleba and M. Bloch Hansen. 2012. ‘Chapter 3: Denmark’. In U. Mannering and M. Gleba (eds), Textiles and Textile Production in Europe: From Prehistory to AD 400, pp. 138–150. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
  35. Nentwig, W., S. Bacher, S. Kumschick, P. Pysek and V. Monserrat. 2018. ‘More than “100 worst” alien species in Europe’. Biological Invasions 20: 1611–1621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1651-6
  36. Neumann, R.P. 2005. Making Political Ecology. London: Oxford University Press.
  37. Nikkilä-Kiipula, E. 2011. ‘Suomi aiotaan puhdistaa täysin jättiputkista’ [Finland will be cleaned from the giant hogweed]. Länsi-Savo (newspaper), 31 March.
  38. Päivänen, J. 1993. Joulukuusi kautta aikojen. Kuusennäreestä viljelypuuksi [Christmas Tree through Time: From a Twig to a Farmed Tree]. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.
  39. Peterken, G.F. 1996. Natural Woodland: Ecology and Conservation in Northern Temperate Regions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  40. Piha, M. 2018. ‘Combining Proto-Scandinavian loanword strata in South Saami with the Early Iron Age archaeological material of Jämtland and Dalarna, Sweden’. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 64: 118–233. https://doi.org/10.33339/fuf.66694
  41. Pitkänen, A., P. Huttunen, H. Jungner and K. Tolonen. 2002. ‘A 10 000 year local forest fire history in a dry heath forest site in eastern Finland, reconstructed from charcoal layer records of a small mire’. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 32: 1875–1880.
  42. Rautavaara, T. 1943. Mihin kasvimme kelpaavat. Leivän lisänä, ruoan aineksina, mausteina, kahvin ja teen korvikkeina, lääkkeinä, rehuna sekä teknillisiin tarkoituksiin. II osa: Kesän ja syksyn kasvit [What Are Our Plants Good For: Accompaniment for Bread, Ingredient for Food, as Spice, Substitute for Coffee And Tea, as Medicine, as Cattle Feed and for Technical Purposes. Part II: Plants of Summer and Autumn]. Porvoo: WSOY.
  43. Rautio, P. 2013. Tuoksuvat tarhakurtturuusut. Doftande rugosarosor [Smelling Beach Roses]. Turku: Suomen ruususeura ry.
  44. Rautio, P., T. Tammi, T. Aivelo, R. Hohti, A. Kervinen and M. Saari. 2022. ‘“For whom? By whom?”: Critical perspectives of participation in ecological citizen science’. Cultural Studies of Science Education 17: 765–793. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-021-10099-9
  45. Rival, L. 2006. ‘Amazonian historical ecologies’. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12 (1): 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00274.x
  46. Robbins, P. 2004. ‘Comparing invasive networks: Cultural and political biographies of invasive species’. Geographical Review 94 (2): 139–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2004.tb00164.x
  47. Robbins, P. 2012 [2004]. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. Second edn. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  48. Roiko-Jokela, H. 2016. ’Metsät, metsätalous ja hyvinvointi 1500–2000’ [Forests, forest economics and welfare]. In L. Paaskoski and H. Roiko-Jokela (eds), Metsä tekee hyvää! [Forest Does Good!], pp. 10–28. Vuosilusto 11. Punkaharju: Lusto – Suomen Metsämuseo ja Metsähistorian seura.
  49. Rose, D.B., T. van Dooren and M. Chrulew. 2017. ‘Introduction: Telling extinction stories’. In T. van Dooren, D.B. Rose and M. Chrulew (eds), Extinction Studies, pp. 1–18. New York: Columbia University Press.
  50. Rotherham, I.D. and R.A. Lambert (eds). 2011. Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: Human Perceptions, Attitudes, and Approaches to Management. London and Washington, DC: Earthscan.
  51. Saarikivi, J. 2022. ‘The divergence of Proto-Uralic and its offspring’. In M. Bakró-Nagy, J. Laakso and E. Skribnik (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages, pp. 28–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  52. Sarmaja-Korjonen, K., Y. Vasari and C.-A. Haeggström. 1991. ‘Taxus baccata and influence of Iron Age man on the vegetation in Åland, SW Finland’. Annales Botanici Fennici 28: 143–159.
  53. Seppä, H., T. Alenius, R.H.W. Bradshaw, T. Giesecke, M. Heikkilä and P. Muukkonen. 2009. ‘Invasion of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and the rise of the boreal ecosystem in Fennoscandia’. Journal of Ecology 97: 629–640.
  54. Smit, M. de 2019. ‘Polyglossia and nativization: The translation of zoonyms in early Dutch bibles’. In M. Kauko, M. Norro, K.-M. Nummila, T. Toropainen and T. Fonsén (eds), Languages in the Lutheran Reformation: Textual Networks and the Spread of Ideas, pp. 231–251. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  55. Stibbe, A. 2015. Ecolinguistics. Abingdon: Routledge.
  56. Sodikoff, G.M. 2012. Forest and Labor in Madagascar: From Colonial Concession to Global Biosphere. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  57. Soininen, A. M. 1974. Vanha maataloutemme: Maatalous ja maatalousväestö Suomessa perinnäisen maatalouden loppukaudella 1720-luvulta 1870-luvulle [Our Agriculture of the Past: Agriculture and Its People from the 1720s to the 1870s]. Helsinki: Suomen Historiallinen Seura.
  58. Sonck-Rautio, K. 2019. The Fishers of the Archipelago Sea: Resilience, Sustainability, Knowledge and Agency. PhD Thesis, University of Turku.
  59. STT [Finnish News Agency]. 1997. ‘Kurtturuusu vuoden pensas’ [Rosa rugosa is the shrub of the year]. Etelä-Suomen Sanomat (newspaper), 19 April.
  60. Turunen, S. 2015. Valloittavat lajit. Tulokkaat ja vieraslajit tulimuurahaisista jättibalsamiin. [Occupying Species: Newcomers and Alien Species from Fire Ants to Giant Hogweed]. Helsinki: Into.
  61. Uusitalo, H. and K. Suomalainen. 2023. ‘Ecolinguistic approach to Finnish online discourse on alien species’. Language@Internet 21: www.languageatinternet.org/articles/2023/uusitalo (accessed 15 March 2024).
  62. Vanhanen, S. and P. Pesonen. 2015. ‘Wild plant gathering in Stone Age Finland’. Quaternary International 404 (Part A): 43–55.
  63. Vuorela, T. 1975. Suomalainen kansankulttuuri [Culture of Finnish People]. Porvoo: WSOY.
  64. Warren C.R. 2007. ‘Perspectives on the “alien” versus “native” species debate: A critique of concepts, language and practice’. Progress in Human Geography 31 (4): 427–446.