Beavers in the Bronx

Of course, this is not the Bronx, it's the Catskills, but you get the idea.

After decades of absence, a male beaver and lodge seen in the Bronx River...amazing!

Biophilia at Work in NYC

What characteristic of park space do New Yorkers value most?

The overwhelming majority say "landscape", which I will liberally interpret as natural area.

(results from 2/09/07 poll)

Laugh, Cry, and a Flora

I think I'm going to present this botanical news in an order other than presented in the title - so as to be more "uplifting", like a Frank Capra film.

First, the flora.

CHECKLIST AND ATLAS OF THE VASCULAR FLORA OF WEST VIRGINIA

This 381-page printed document includes a series of completely revised lists of the vascular plants known to occur outside of cultivation in West Virginia and a dot map indicating from which counties each of the 2503 taxa is recorded.

But wait, there's more! You'll also get -

* a reference to names and classification of all the ferns, trees,wildflowers and other vascular plants and the counties in the state in which they occur;
* which species are native, introduced, adventive, or exotic;
* which are classified as wetland species, which may be invasive to natural areas;
* those needing further field work,
* those needing systematic study, and
* those tracked by the West Virginia Natural Heritage program as state rare.

Here's how to get yours!

Now, for the infuriating...

Again, US Fish and Wildlife does the bidding of their boss, the most unenvironmentally savvy President to ever walk the earth. May his days be filled with his own, personal global warming.

Fury sprouts over agency's failure to protect rare, local plant
from The Daily Sentinel

Raising the ire of conservationists, a rare plant that exists almost
entirely within areas that have been leased for oil and gas development in Mesa and Garfield counties will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act in the foreseeable future, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday...

And a feel good story if there ever was one - how botany brings the people of the world together (see photo).

from The Berkleyan

A plant-based diet for small-planet diplomats
Can botanical exchanges between the U.S. and Iran play the peacemaking role that ping-pong did 30 years ago?

As measured by international time zones or teenage girls' hemlines, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the American West are worlds apart. Yet as viewed through the lens of geography, geology, or climate, the nation- state and western United States have worlds in common . sharing not only the same northern latitudes but, in significant measure, important topographical features (large central plateaus, with interior-draining basins, lying between mountain ranges), Mediterranean climates, active earthquake faults, and (due in large part to these other similarities) a notably rich flora, with hundreds of plant species in common...

Can't you just feel the love?

Backyard Invasions

The curator holds an herbarium sheet. These are invaluable for determining historical floristic compositions of an area, among other things.

(For more about herbarium sheets and their botanical role - click on "store")
The article "New exhibit focuses on invasive plants," is about a new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, features images of invasive and endangered Pennsylvania plants. The display — both informative and elegant — is a combination of drawings, paintings, etchings, and giclées (digital prints).

Overall the article does a good job of framing the issues, with the exception of the author's final comment about cultivars that "are native plants" that "can satisfy a consumer's wants without harming the environment." This is not entirely true, but that discussion is a post in and of itself.

Educating the public about the ecological costs of invasives is important, as they continue to devastate our systems. Case in point, newly published research shows how a honeysuckle shrub (Lonicera mackii) used in gardens and landscapes harms forests by disturbing the understory layer, tree reproduction and mature tree productivity.

Hardwood stands from southwestern Ohio had noticeably lower species diversity and vegetation cover below the shrubs to detect growth changes 25 years prior to and 25 years following invasion. The growth rates of overstory trees was reduced significantly. The effect of this slowdown were first observed about 6 yrs after invasion with the greatest frequency of negative growth changes occurring 20 yrs after invasion.

The abstract - Hardwood forest invasion by a non-indigenous shrub (Amur honeysuckle) negatively affects overstory productivity (a pdf)
More on the invasiveness of shrub honeysuckles

Arverne by the Sea, Queens

I had heard a lot of hoopla about Arverne by the Sea, we got there and it was a pretty big letdown. The neighborhood itself is really depressing, very impoverished. I've been all over the city, but I've never seen anything like it. It was like being in a desolate Rust Belt town.

A view down the boardwalk. Bayberry in foreground, lots of shore little bluestem in background.


Northern bayberry (Myrica (Morella) pensylvanica) holds onto some of it's leaves through winter, although you can see quite a few on the ground. Lovely russet color. The fruits are harder to see but they are there. They have a high lipid content - excellent nourishment for migrating birds. Arverne, Queens.

A view towards the A train tracks


Golden hues of shore little bluestem (Schizachyrium littorale)


Northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) leaves blanket the ground, shading out grass seedlings. The shrubs are also colonial, meaning they reproduce vegetatively. These strategies enable bayberry to succeed switchgrass, little bluestem et al in maritime/coastal grassland communities. It's also a great wintry color palette: gold, russet, gray.

Urban Blight Botanizing at Dubos Point

Salt marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) culms with sea lavender stems (Limonium carolinianum).

Poor Dubos Point. I found a reference to it as a site for "Urban Blight Birding" . This is too bad, since the 33-acre site is named in honor of Dr. Rene Dubos, he of the great phrase, “Think globally, act locally.” And while the spirit of this sentiment seems to have been lost on the NYC parks dept, that is probably a good thing. Their neglect often leads to more natural area. Parks targeted for "improvements" get excessive amounts of the built - boardwalk, trail, birdblinds while simultaneously diminishing the natural - incursion of invasive plants from disturbance and construction vehicles, loss of rare plants due to uninformed site design.

I should do more yoga - this frustration has to seep out somehow.


Just across from JFK...

Back to my site visit. Dubos Point was a saltwater marsh until 1912, at which point it was filled with dredged materials for real estate development. The project failed to materialize. Today, it is the largest salt marsh on the north shore of the Rockaway peninsula east of Rockaway Point.


High tide line with felled Spartina alterniflora, groundsel bush (Baccharis halimfolia) and marsh-elder (Iva fructescens). And, of course, detritus. This is urban blight botanizing, after all.


More floatsam. The most interesting thing is the coconut. I wonder if that came from nearby garbage, or instead from some tropical paradise. It's not unheard of, those suckers travel far. They've been found off the coast of Ireland. Today I counted 5 coconuts!

Some of the plants seen in the salt marsh areas:

Graminoids - salt grass (Distichlis spicata), blackgrass (Juncus gerardii), common reed (Phragmites australis), salt marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), salt meadow cordgrass (Spartina patens).
Shrubs - groundsel bush (Baccharis halimfolia) and marsh-elder (Iva fructescens).
Forbs - sea rocket (Cakile edentula), sea lavender (Limonium carolinianum), glasswort (Salicornia europaea), seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens).

In addition to salt marsh, we also saw maritime grasslands. Both of these vegetative communities are rare in NYC.