The problem:
I want to have a volcanic island with an everlasting lava outflow completely overgrown by (jungle) plants. It therefore follows that plants should also grow above the lava.
I know that volcanic ash is very fertile, so the plants can grow well.
However, I see the heat of the lava as a problem: if the lava is completely overgrown, the heat accumulates and thus burns the plants. As a solution to this, I have thought of "natural" chimneys, mostly vertical open spaces that remain free of growth and give the heat an escape.
I can make a fertilizer and other things with handwavium, however I don't want to change the plants.
Can plants with infinite good conditions grow over lava and cover it completely ?
And what things do I need to do this ?
The world:
Wealthy scientist Alice would like to work quietly on the solution to end world hunger. However, she is constantly distracted by people: the UN keeps asking about progress, the press for unnecessary interviews, her wife when she would be coming home. All these unimportant things keep her from doing her research.
However, recently the evil scientist Bob was defeated by the World-Police™ and his lair of evil, a cozy volcanic island somewhere in the middle of nowhere, is for sale. With its own trench full of lava that drains into the sea and a basement full of stuff made with handwavium. And thanks to the never ending lava flow, the island is also getting bigger and bigger, you get more and more land. So strike today and buy it.
Alice strikes, buys the island, disappears from the world stage and calmly develops a super fertilizer. With its own field test on the island.
After testing and documenting everything, she gets hit by a flowerpot that fell off the shelf and dies. The flower pot was red and had a smiley face on the side. It was a good flower pot. We will miss you, Charlie, the flower pot.
200 years later, everything is overgrown with plants, the original island is no longer recognizable, and Charlie is still dead. In this initial state, the island is rediscovered....