In popular conservation discourse, Rhododendron ponticum is portrayed as an alien invader let loose on the British countryside by misguided gardeners. In Scotland, eradication campaigns tend to be favoured over more pragmatic approaches to management, even though the methods employed can be destructive and long-term success is often limited. In line with recent work critiquing categorical approaches to invasive species management, we argue that such campaigns obscure the underlying conditions of plant invasiveness. We focus in particular on the way perceptual processes shape and are shaped by plant “invasions” over time. Noting that the majority of plant invasions worldwide are initiated by the horticultural trade, and that visual appearance is a major factor in the selection of plants for trade, we present a framework for critically analysing the visual conditions of horticulturally-led invasion ecologies. Working from the perspective of a more-than-human, materialist media ecology, we cast rhododendrons as entities that modulate light, or photomedia. Our analysis shows how their invasiveness is materially produced as opposed to merely enabled—as a result of the cultural and socioeconomic as well as vegetal relations in which they are entangled. The site of our analysis is an abandoned country estate in Western Scotland that has recently undergone R. ponticum removal. By examining the production of visual effects by rhododendrons, cameras and other media employed there, we identify relations to land that, far from being limited to the period of R. ponticum’s “escape” into the Scottish countryside, continue in present-day projects of eradication. This analysis yields critical visual strategies for a gentler, more experimental re-mediation of R. ponticum and invaded landscapes in general.

中文翻译：

---

植物入侵的媒介生态学

在流行的保护性话语中，杜鹃杜鹃被描绘成外来入侵者，被误导的园丁放到英国乡村。在苏格兰，尽管采用的方法可能具有破坏性，而且长期成功常常受到限制，但根除运动往往倾向于采用更为实用的管理方法。与最近对侵入性物种管理的分类方法提出批评的工作相一致，我们认为此类活动掩盖了植物侵入性的潜在条件。我们特别关注知觉过程的形成方式，并随着时间的流逝而受到植物“入侵”的影响。注意到全世界大多数植物入侵是由园艺贸易引起的，视觉外观是选择贸易植物的主要因素，我们提供了一个框架，可以严格分析园艺主导的入侵生态的视觉条件。从比人类更唯物主义的媒介生态学的角度出发，我们将杜鹃花投射为调制光或光媒体的实体。我们的分析表明，由于文化，社会经济以及植物之间相互纠缠的关系，它们的侵略性是由物质产生而不是仅仅由物质引起的。我们的分析站点是西苏格兰一个废弃的乡村庄园，最近被拆除了桥本。通过检查杜鹃花，照相机和其他雇用的媒介产生的视觉效果，我们确定了与土地的关系，这不仅限于蓬皮杜鹃“逃逸”到苏格兰乡村的时期，继续进行当今的根除项目。这种分析产生了关键的视觉策略，可以更温和，更具实验性地修复桥本和入侵景观。