A Botanist's Big Apple

A word about tent caterpillars

2007-05-05T22:47:00.000-04:00

Forest Tent Caterpillars are unsightly but they are native and therefore have natural enemies here so the worst thing to do is to use insecticides (which would also kill their natural enemies directly or indirectly). While they can cause partial defoliation of some trees (cherries seem to be among their favorites) the trees are not permanently affected and indeed have evolved along with this mild defoliation pressure from these caterpillars. They really should be left alone. They have many natural enemies in the insect world. Caterpillars are frequently parasitized by various tiny braconid, ichneumonid, and chalcid wasps. Several predators and a few diseases also help to regulate their populations. This, in part, accounts for the fluctuating population levels from year to year. Birds and small mammals are known to eat them as well.

If you must get rid of them in your own yard: Remove the egg masses during winter to reduce the problem next spring. In the early spring, small tents can be removed and destroyed by hand. Larger tents may be pruned out and destroyed or removed by winding the nest upon the end of a stick.

For more information

Time to pull the mustard

2007-05-02T22:25:00.000-04:00

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), that is. This exotic wildflower, introduced to the U.S. from Europe in the late 1800s, is killing our woodlands.

From the New York Times, May 2, 2006:

Researchers have found that it disrupts a healthy relationship between hardwood tree seedlings and soil fungi, with results that can be disastrous for a forest.

Many plants make use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which form an elaborate network of filaments throughout the soil. These fungi are a diverse group, but they all have one thing in common: they help plants take up nutrients from the soil, getting carbon in return.

Garlic mustard is a member of the mustard family, "one of the very few families that do not need to associate with mycorrhizal fungi at all," Dr. Stinson said. These species produce chemicals that have antifungal properties. Native mustards have been around long enough, she suggested, that the mycorrhizal fungi have learned to live with them. But the fungi haven't had time to adapt to garlic mustard. "It basically is killing off the fungi," she said.

It bullies out our native spring ephemerals, it secretes a compound which destroys the soil fungi that is critical to the survival of our trees, and it fools a native butterfly to lay eggs on it that its the caterpillars can't eat. Here's a primer on the proper protocols for pulling it out. It's a prolific seeder, so bagging it is important.

Freaky ramps

2007-04-29T22:08:00.000-04:00

Today I was back at Corson's Brook Woods in Staten Island for my Torrey plant walk. I came across this: Ramps (Allium tricoccum) with a spooky white stripe. Prematurely grey from worry over site development? The state did want to build on the site. It's actually probably from a virus. I know some plants in the horticultural trade, such as tulips, have viruses introduced to created patterns on petals or leaves.

Gratuitous wildflower photo of downy yellow violet (Viola pubescens).

Sourland Mountains, NJ

2007-04-28T21:15:00.000-04:00

All this rain is ruining my plant walks! I've been looking forward to the Raritain River floodplain walk on Torrey Botanical Society's field trip page. Bluebells, bluebells, and bluebells. They are really just gorgeous. And, for some reason, not in New York. So, I would've gotten my fix if it hadn't rained. And I hadn't gotten lost. Instead, I went to Sourland Mountain Nature Preserve.

Early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis) on a muddy lump. Note the hairy stems. These sticky stalks protect its precious nectar and pollen from maurading non-pollinators such as ants.

Pennywort (Obolaria virginica) is an interesting wildflower with its reduced, scale-like leaves. This species is no longer found in NYC.

Emerging rattlesnake fern (Botrychium virginianum). A persnickety fern, a good indicator of ecological integrity, due to its relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. This species is rare in NYC.
Wild licorice leaves (Galium circaezans)

Jack in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) with deep burgundy stripes on spathe, which acts as an umbrella for the spadix, the actual inflorescence hiding inside which bears tiny blossoms.

The ways of Callery pear

2007-04-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) planted along Rt 440 in Staten Island.

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) planted along Rt 440 in Staten Island.

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) volunteering along Rt 440 in Staten Island.

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) now found in Conference House Park. That was easy math.

Corson's Brook Woods 07

2007-04-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

Last year was my first time at Corson's Brook Woods, and it made a big impression on me - such a mecca of spring wildflowers! So, I visited again this year and it did not disappoint.

Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides). A striking spring ephemeral, with its unusual flower color and greyish blue glaucous stem. Rare in NYC.

American beech (Fagus grandifolia). I don't know why, but beech trees hold onto their leaves all winter. They are a welcome splash of color in a winter woodland - and even in spring. Rich forest soils.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). Pure white. Lovely and fleeting. Rare in NYC.

Trout lily (Erythronium americanum). An impressive amount, it just went on and on. These types of shade tolerant species are slow growing, and so such large colonies are very old - the population could've been many decades old.

Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum). Decorative foliage - the silvery spots that look like water stains. I'm surprised this isn't used more in the hort trade. It's a great groundcover. Found in rich forest soils and floodplains. Rare in NYC.

Plant Blindness

2007-04-19T12:24:00.000-04:00

An excellent overview of the phenomenon - how people don't see plants - from Tuesday's Science Times.

We barely notice plants, can rarely identify them and find them incomparably inert. “Animals are much more vivid to the average person than plants are,” Dr. Raven said, “and some people aren’t even sure that plants are alive.”

*sigh* sadly, it's true. Although, in my experience, people do notice trees, and care a heck of a lot about garden flora.

Destruction at Split Rock Golf Course

2007-04-06T22:44:00.000-04:00

Parks does it again. Now the issue is natural areas within golf courses (that were originally carved out of...natural areas). Split Rock Golf Course in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is now under new management. It seems there was nothing in the contract about leaving things as is . These folks want every blessed inch within the fence to be golf turf. Arck! And we had just gotten the other company to stop mowing the rare purple milkweed!
Surveying the damage...

Persimmons - a state listed rare tree. Now you see them...

Now you don't! Chipped into a woody pulp. It goes on...I just don't have the stomach for this anymore.

Magnolias face perilous future

2007-04-04T16:26:00.001-04:00

The spectacular bloom of a magnolia may be a very common sight in gardens, but in the wild it is a different story.

A new report has found that over half the world's magnolia species are
facing extinction in their forest habitats. To wit, the sweetbay magnolia pictured here

Blue wood sedge in flower

2007-04-02T22:07:00.000-04:00

This is my northfacing windowbox. It contains maidenhair fern, wild columbine, wood poppy, common blue violet, and blue wood sedge (Carex flaccosperma). It's bluish-green leaves overwintered (evergreen), but are tender, so they do get brown.

This plant shouldn't be in flower until the end of April, but I guess no one told it that. You can clearly see the male flowers - the lemon yellow anthers - at the top of the inflorescence. The female flowers - clear stigmas - have yet to emerge below.

Laurel wilt disease

2007-03-20T17:50:00.000-04:00

Boy, we keep rolling out the good news here.

Laurel wilt disease is the newest problem that may soon reach our area. It is a rapidly spreading non-native fungus spread by the Asian ambrosia beetle that is killing sassafras, laurel, and spicebush (members of the laurel family) in the Southeast. The outlook is not encouraging. This would also be bad news for various swallowtail butterflies adapted to them. This is a very good example of why we need to regulate the provenance of plant material. Tree nurseries have spread many diseases in the past, and it seems, will continue to do so.

Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation

2007-03-16T18:18:00.000-04:00

The Asian Longhorn Beetle has found its way to a natural area on Staten Island. ALB was first discovered in the US in street trees in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The insect is thought to have arrived here from woody packing materials from China. ALB has proved to be persistent and able to spread from infestations when eradication has not been completed.

Now it looks like half the trees on the island will need to be cut down and chipped (which is how USDA treats this infestation). It should be interesting to see what comes back - on the Brunswick shale dreg island that is Pralls. Let's just hope this is the first and last natural area where we find these beetles.

Update:
Video of ALB on Pralls Island from the Staten Island Advance.

Drosera in Treehugger!

2007-03-14T12:26:00.000-04:00

Our herbarium sheets get a shout out in Treehugger! We are so excited!

Beavers in the Bronx

2007-02-25T22:49:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-17T01:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-02T22:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

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.

Frozen toes in PBP

2007-01-25T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today I visited The Meadow in Pelham Bay Park. I dressed so warmly, but instead of wearing my insulated boots I wore my summer field shoes - aka my old running sneakers. With only one pair of socks, I was dancing up and down to keep my toes limber. Hard to do when the high is only 25 F.

Anyway, this area became a meadow when the area was scraped for fill soil to create Orchard Beach - another of Robert Moses' handiworks. This time, though, the results aren't all that bad. It created a wet depression that is home to quite a nice assortment of plants, especially those that are rare in the city and the state. The clusters of staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) are such a treat in the winter.
I found several of the hard empty shells before I saw the walnut tree (Juglans nigra). It is pretty easy to id in winter. It has big, stout, sparse branches and dark deeply furrowed bark. Hundreds of Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) stems surrounded its base.

This little bluestem (Schizachyrium sp.) turned out to be the coastal species (littorale) - shore little bluestem. Pelham is outer coastal plain. The "interior" species (S. scoparium) is found across the borough in western Bronx in Van Cortlandt Park.

Lots of pasture rose (Rosa carolina) where we entered (see first photo) but this is multiflora rose (R. multiflora), one of the worst invasive plants in the state. Looks pretty here though, no?

Anthropologie & moss loss

2007-01-23T01:44:00.000-05:00

Anthropologie's store windows and displays have me upset. They feature a lot of moss - wait, let me rephrase that - A LOT OF MOSS (and liverworts in there too) and fungi, mostly shelf fungi. I wish I had a picture...

Anyway, far too much, in just the one store. And how many other stores have the same displays? Why worry, you ask? Because, where do they get these biological elements? They are harvested from the wild. Probably with permits, but still, what is the ecological repercussion(s) of this? {My concerns also apply to mining peat moss for orchids and garden beds - bad, bad, bad).

This study, sadly, supports my sadness.

Yearly revenues from sales of commercial moss harvest permits were reported to be US$19,650. In contrast, estimates of total harvests based on export data and assumptions about those data suggest that the mean yearly harvest for the years 1998–2003 was between 4.6 and 18.4 million air-dry kg (yearly minimum and maximum estimated at 0.9 and 37.4 million air-dry kg, respectively). Moss sales (domestic plus exports) are estimated to total between US$˜6 million and 165 million per year. The wide ranges in these estimates illustrate how little is known about the moss harvest trade. In combination with lack of information about the size of the moss inventory, reaccumulation rates, and species and ecosystem functions potentially affected by harvest, results indicate that policy makers and land managers lack critical information on which to base harvest regulations.

When helping is hurting

2007-01-17T00:11:00.000-05:00

Preserving endangered plant populations can be very straight forward. Save a site from development, save the plants. Other times it is complicated. This story is the latter, and why gardening and restoration, albeit noble and important, are no substitute for conservation.

This story is about the Presidio clarkia (Clarkia franciscana) pictured above and two gardeners who thought they were "helping".

Horticultural 'bad guys' meant well

NO MATTER HOW you look at it, Concord resident Bob Case is an unlikely villain in a recent kerfuffle over the Presidio clarkia, a delicate little blossom that grows in only two places in the world -- San Francisco's Presidio and on a small patch of the Oakland hills.

Read more of the story
Learn more about Presidio clarkia

Soundview Park, BX

2007-01-11T00:42:00.000-05:00

Today I visited Soundview Park, targeting specific sections to see if there was any vegetation of interest. Most of the sections I looked at were fill soils with mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) as the dominant species - exotic, invasive, nada.

The area that had the most interesting vegetation was the jetty. My presumption is that the jetty is similar to high quality (clean) sandy fill - no nutrients, no weeds.
Soundview Park is in the south Bronx, where the Bronx River opens into the East River. This sections is estuarine, meaning the water is brackish. The salinity levels of the Bronx River diminish (becomes freshwater) a little further north, near the Bronx Zoo. So, as expected, much of the vegetation I saw was typical of salt marsh/maritime areas. The grounsel bush (Baccharis halimifolia) and marsh elder (Iva fructens) seen above are testament to the presence of saltwater. It was a rather nice saltmarsh, small, and no botanical surprises.
Seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens)

The park has been derelict for so long the the locals feel comfortable squatting on city land, whether for boats...

Or the dead. Dead what? I don't know. I don't think I want to know. After we passed the memorial, there was a wretched smell - a giant, rotting dead dog. People, I don't make this stuff up.

NY City Map

2007-01-08T21:34:00.000-05:00

City Life

Cultural Center
Green Market
Library
Park

Now you can coordinate your wildflower walk with a Greenmarket visit!

NY City Map

Interactive Key to Wetland Monocots

2006-11-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

What a nifty new resource!

There is a new Interactive Key to Wetland Monocots of the US (ca. 2400
taxa) available from PLANTS (plants.usda.gov). See
(http://npdc.usda.gov/technical/plantid_wetland_mono.html) for details.
It is free for use and download and requires no installation or
registration.

The data set was developed cooperatively by the Missouri Botanical
Garden and the USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center and was compiled
from numerous and varied sources by Dr. David Bogler of the Missouri
Botanical Garden (ca. 1.7 million data points). The automated plant key
runs in a new version of SLIKS (www.stingersplace.com/SLIKS) which is
free and requires no installation. It lets you identify the monocots
known to occur in U.S. wetlands. The species list in this key is
derived from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetland
Inventory National List of Vascular Plant Species That Occur in
Wetlands: 1998 National List.

866 Reports Can't be Wrong

2006-11-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

Very depressing news just before the holiday...

WASHINGTON - Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends.
These fast-moving adaptations come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly.

"We are finally seeing species going extinct," said University of Texas biologist Camille Parmesan, author of the study. "Now we've got the evidence. It's here. It's real. This is not just biologists' intuition. It's what's happening."

Her review of 866 scientific studies is summed up in the journal Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.

Parmesan reports seeing trends of animal populations moving northward if they can, of species adapting slightly because of climate change, of plants blooming earlier (remember our earlier post?), and of an increase in pests and parasites.

Read the rest here.

NJ Pinelands Drawings at Rutgers

2006-11-17T22:14:00.000-05:00

A historical collection of NJ Pinelands botanical drawings was acquired by the Alexander Library of Rutgers University (my alma mater). This collection of black-and-white illustrations was created by Dr. Albert List, Jr. (1928-2005). List was a botany professor at Drexel University with an interest in field botany and a training in art. Included in this donated collection are an estimated 1000 drawings of vascular plants (a few insects and several mosses, lichens, etc too), unpublished manuscripts, and notes. What a boon to local botanists!

More on Albert List.

Autumnal Colors Head North

2006-11-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

global warming and fall foliage

Say it ain't so!

Some climatologists have said that even if steps are taken now to limit global warming, temperatures in New England will rise enough over the next half-century that the source of much of that rich fall color, the sugar maples (Acer saccharum), will disappear from most of the region. Healthy stands of sugar maples may be found eventually no farther south than Canada and northern Maine.

Herbaria aid climate change research

2006-11-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Haven't we been telling you that herbarium sheets are the foundation of all that is good and pure in the world? What is an herbarium sheet, you say? See this (then click on "store").

An old photograph shows that on Memorial Day, 1868, the deciduous trees in Lowell Cemetery in Massachusetts had yet to leaf out. On Memorial Day, 2005, they stood in full verdure. Leafing or flowering dates each year depend on temperature, and global warming has been driving those events earlier in many places. Plants take part in many ecological interactions—with their pollinators, for instance—that are precisely timed. Changes in their seasonal development may therefore bring on broader ecological disruptions. Records of past plant development are scarce, though, so analyzing trends in timing has been difficult.

Now Abraham J. Miller-Rushing and Richard B. Primack, both ecologists at Boston University et al. have compared dated historical photographs, as well as dated herbarium specimens, of plants in flower in eastern Massachusetts, with recent observations of the same species. The plants now flower about eleven days earlier than they did a hundred years ago, when the region was 4.5 Fahrenheit degrees cooler. Their findings echo independent estimates from other data, confirming that old photographs and herbarium specimens are reliable sources for climate-change research. (American Journal of Botany, in press, 2006)

Pollination Station

2006-11-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

Lots of news about pollinators.

First, the bad news...
Long-term population trends for some North American pollinators -- bees, birds, bats, and other animals and insects that spread pollen so plant fertilization can occur -- are "demonstrably downward," says a new report from the National Research Council. However, there is little or no population data for many pollinators, which prompted the committee that wrote the report to call for stepped-up efforts to monitor these creatures and improve understanding of their basic ecology. Read more

Now, the good news...
U.S. Postal Service announced the creation of Pollination stamps which will be released next summer to coincide with National Pollinator Week (June 24-30). The stamps consist of four images arranged in two alternate and interlocking patterns. The intricate design of these beautiful stamps emphasizes the ecological relationship between pollinators and plants and suggests the biodiversity necessary to ensure the viability of that relationship.

Depicted on the Pollination stamps are four wildflowers and four pollinators. Two Morrison’s bumble bees are paired with purple or chaparral nightshade (one of the bees is actively engaged in buzz pollination). A calliope hummingbird sips from a hummingbird trumpet blossom. A lesser long-nosed bat prepares to “dive” into a saguaro flower. And a Southern dogface butterfly visits prairie or common ironweed.

And some interesting news...

Researchers Find that Flower Choice Matters

Rebecca Flanagan has probably come as close as a human can to reading the mind of a bumblebee.

Flanagan is studying the behaviors of bees as they gather pollen -- which plant species the bees forage on, which flowers they probe
and in what order, and how many blooms they visit before moving on to another plant.

But why go to such lengths to map the flight of the bumblebee? The bees are pivotal players in determining which plant populations survive through successful reproduction. If scientists could better understand nature’s decision-making process, then they could use the information to increase crop yields and to boost conservation of native plant communities.

For more information on pollinators: www.pollinator.org.

Natives for Invasives

2006-10-25T19:40:00.000-04:00

This is a great new publication - there are lots of natives I hadn't thought of using in a horticultural situation. I do have a suggestion for improvement, however. There should be some kind of warning regarding use of Celastrus americana where people need to make sure these plants are purchased from a trustworthy source and labelled properly. Their exotic breathren are very similar and so hard to differentiate - especially the M. rubra. It's for exactly that reason that I tend not to recommend them to the average native plant gardener. That said...
Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants is an indispensable guide for everyone who loves dazzling gardens and cares about the health of North America's natural landscapes. Invasive plants, the overwhelming majority of which are not regionally native, brazenly spread unchecked across residential landscapes, parks, preserves, roadsides, and other wild lands, supplanting native species and ultimately threatening the ancient biological communities in their path. In fact, most scientists now consider invasive species to be one of the top two threats to this planet's native plants and animals (the other is habitat loss). Invasive species cause major environmental damage amounting to almost $120 billion a year. Yet invasive plants are still commercially available, and a few of them remain wildly popular. Japanese barberry, for example, is one of the hottest-selling plants in the nursery trade, and Norway maple is one of the most widely planted trees in the country.

NY Biodiversity at AMNH

2006-10-20T19:52:00.000-04:00

Today I attended Living with Nature: A Conference on Sustaining the NY Metro Region's Biodiversity Through Local Action at AMNH. Co-sponsored by the NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, the agenda had panels on education, arthitecture and green cityscape, food systems, consumer choice, transportation, and natural systems.

I missed the keynote addresses, but heard that Al Appleton was excellent. The architecture panel was great (except for the one who was incredibly lack luster. We shan't name names). As I expected, there was a lot of talk of greenroofs. The Gaia Institute has one in the Bronx using native plants. But really, all the greenways and greenroofs won't provide habitat for shade-tolerant forest herbs. So it's not all about building. You can't construct your way out of land conservation.

I sat in on the natural systems panel in the afternoon. It was excellent as well. The DEC representative was especially lively and made several good points...nature does need a Madison Avenue marketing campaign! Carolyn Summers exclaimed that there should be "no more extirpations"...brava!

A gorgeous fall day

2006-10-18T19:51:00.000-04:00

These pictures will make office workers everywhere weep with envy at how sweet it is to be a field biologist. Today I was working along Staten Island's South Shore.
Fall foliage isn't limited to the trees. Here bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) glows a golden hue. {Most people think of ferns as dew-covered fronds growing lushly on the rich forest soils in the umbrage of canopy trees. Bracken fern laughs in the face of convention. It is a sunshine-embracing, sandy soil inhabiting fern. It is adapted to fire, with its root stock (rhizomes) nestled deep in the earth to avoid the flames. It's also quite common - keep an eye out for it the next time you are in the pine barrens or on Staten Island in Conference House Park or Clay Pit State Park Preserve.}

Here you can see clearly the glacial till sandy soils. The vegetation - trees - gray birch (Betula populifolia) and sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and that's a scrub oak to the right. The pine is short-leaf pine (Pinus echinatus). The shrubs are black chokeberry (Photinia melanocarpa) or if you are old school (Aronia melanocarpa) and the gorgeous reds in the background are highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). The cloud-like white puffs are narrow-leaved boneset (Eupatorium hyssopifolium var. laciniatum), a New York State rare plant.

Good Gardening: Little Bluestem

2006-10-16T20:04:00.000-04:00

Most people have no concept of grasses aside from turf lawns. And that's too bad. Grasses can contribute much to your home landscape and with relatively little effort.
For example, little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) {formerly Andropogon scoparius} is a perennial, warm season, native grass that has become a wildly popular ornamental. It is a common component of our landscapes, occuring in sandplain grasslands, oak-hickory forests, pine barrens and dry roadsides throughout our area.

Little bluestem forms dense, upright tufts of bluish-green leaves that typically reach 2-4' tall and 12" wide. It's shorter stature makes it an ideal wildflower companion. Its extensive root system acts as a barrier to weeds, keeping wildflower competitors to a minimum.

In late summer its small, purplish-bronze flowers bloom. The real show stopper is in autumn, when the flowers turn to fluffy white seeds on the tips of bronze-maroon-orange fall foliage. Who needs sugar maples with these autumnal hues? These stems persist, contributing interest to the winter garden.

The grass is an important food plant for the caterpillars of many species of skipper butterflies. It's also one of the critical species for grassland birds. Interplantings with Eastern red cedars are striking, and a sure way to lure more avian critters and human gawkers to your winter landscape.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

2006-10-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

It has happened yet again - *sigh*. Wild potato vine (Ipomoea pandurata) has once again been cut to the ground.

Here's the problem, this plant, an herbaceous vine, (related to that chartreuse green windowbox favorite) existed in an area that was made into a recreational park. Despite all thoughts to the contrary, the plant came back a few years after it had been hacked to the ground to create said park. However, the plant doesn't know that things have changed. This (unnamed) park is now manicured and all things not trees get weed whacked. (This seems to be true of all NYC Parks - unskilled labor + pruning equipment = death to all plants not 50 ft tall. I'm not exaggerating). Imagine, a vine growing up a fence in a highly managed park. How unseemly! thwack

Why care? Well, wild potato vine is a New York State rare plant. And this site is its only occurrence in New York City. I am meeting with the park manager next week to discuss long term solutions to protect this plant. Which I've done every year around this time. My suggestion for 2007 is going to be a security guard.

LAs with Attitude

2006-10-10T19:58:00.000-04:00

In reviewing the plant list for a certain project along the Bronx River, I finally embraced the fact that many landscape architects are very resistant to using natives.

For starters, I pointed out a number of invasives trees, shrubs and forbs that were on the list and suggested suitable native alternatives. I also commented on the compatibility of other exotic species with site conditions and proximity to natural areas.

This was one comment back...

Cotoneaster apiculatus and Spiraea japonica (both of which I said were invasive) are only found in the medians on East Tremont and Devoe. They were chosen for their hardiness in order to survive this hostile environment (because native plants are never found in hostile environments?!? she said dripping with sarcasm). If NYSDOT agrees we can replace the Cotoneaster with Arctostaphylos uva-uri or Myrica pensylvania, and the Spiraea with Itea virginica or Clethra alnifolia (my suggested replacements). You'd think I was asking them to donate a kidney. Sheesh.

The rarest in the land

2006-10-05T19:56:00.000-04:00

Poor Torrey's mountainmint (Pycnanthemum torrei). There has been so much hooey over this population (then scroll 4/5 down) of the globally rare plant. It used to be part of the gorgeous! pristine (in some sections)! rare plant inhabited! 130 acres Kreischer Hill parcel, which was owned by the NYC EDC.

But conservation was not to be. Instead of thousands of years old glacial till sandy soils with their concomitant NYS rare communities and species, we have - what we've always needed! - Target, Home Depot, Bed/Bath/Beyond and a Christmas tree store. Hooray! That was certainly worth destroying the uncommonly occuring, sexually reproducing population of American chestnut. But that's just imho.

*Sigh*

Presently we are trying to conserve the population in situ (stop snickering!). This summer, we did a census of the mountainmint population. A transect was set up parallel to Veterans’ Road West. Every meter was marked off. Perpendicular to transect, 1m squared plots were set up. Within each plot the following data was collected – number of plants, number of individual stems, number of shoots, length of all stems, and the presence and number of flower heads. Casual observation suggests that the plants are grouped in clusters along this transect. This data will confirm whether or not this is the case. If so, further environmental factors will be examined to determine causal factors.

The Garden State

2006-10-03T20:02:00.000-04:00

Good things going on in New Jersey:

A new watchdog organization forms to protect the Highlands
With increasing pressures to further develop and fragment the New Jersey Highlands, New Jersey Conservation Foundation and its conservation partners are forming a new watchdog organization—the New Jersey Highlands Coalition.

Statewide vision for land preservation
Garden State Greenways, is available free to conservation advocates, regional and local planners, government agencies, community leaders and others.

Plants 0, Recreation 1

2006-09-28T19:54:00.000-04:00

This is a charming little change in Parks' policy from allowing only passive recreation to now installing mountainbike trails in natural areas throughout the city. These pictures are from Cunningham Parks in Queens. I have a couple of issues, aside from how devastating this will be to ferns and wildflowers of the forest floor.

The propaganda (which, please note, was written by the mountainbike person doing this work), speaks of erosion:

"There's a common misconception that bicycles cause erosion damage to the trails. In response, a group of local mountain bicyclists decided to band together and educate themselves on the science of trail erosion and how bicycles could be ridden with minimal impact. Fueled with information provided by the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and the US Forest Service, a management plan began to take shape."

First, I would like to see the literature that supports the contention that mountainbikes don't erode trails. But that will never happen. You know why? It doesn't exist. You can, I imagine, minimize erosion, but there will always be erosion associated with mountainbiking.

Second, you want to see their answer to erosion? Look below...

That ditch off to the side? THAT is the result of their managment plan. These are placed every so often along the trails where there are slopes to encourage water (and thus water borne entities, such as soil) to pool. There is still plenty of erosion happening. What is no longer happening is the soils ending up on sidewalks and roadways when it rains. Now the soil settles into these little pools. So it keeps civic infrastructure tidy, but does nothing to retain the uppper soil layers. aka the seed nursery aka the bed of all future trees.

This is utterly awful. Acres and acres of destruction caused by all terrain vehicles - those off road motorized contraptions. Cops tell the drivers to go in the parks - these things are illegal on city streets. But see what happens when cops send these guys into the woods? This is a living graveyard. Once those trees die, nothing will take their place. Shameful. Why doesn't the Parks Department put in perimeter protection to keep these vehicles out? It's a cheap and easy solution, but there is obviously no will.

Scary Seton Falls Park

2006-09-25T19:43:00.000-04:00

A little early for Halloween - scary but true story...

While monitoring vegetation in Seton Falls Park in the Bronx along Rattlesnake Creek approximately 100 yds from the falls area, I noticed 3 boys, about 13 years old, congregating nearby. When I asked if they needed some help, they responded with lewd and threatening comments, and then ran off. I was a little rattled, after all I was in a ravine, unseen (and probably unheard) from the street. About 10 minutes later, they returned to throw rocks at my head. Charming. At this point I ditched the field work and called the police as I promptly left the park. Once the two officers arrived, they drove around a bit to look for the kids, but no luck.

In the midst of the melee, I did come across new plant finds for the park: large-toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata) and the forb ditch stonecrop (Penthorum sedoides). Both are native, the latter is NYC-rare.

Orchids Found in SI

2006-09-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

Today I went out with my pal Ray to root around along Staten Island's south shore...won't say exactly where...and we found two orchid species new to City records – large coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata) and bog twayblade (Liparis loeselii). Large coralroot lacks greenery - it has tawny brown stems and no leaves. This is because it does not photosynthesize. It is saprophytic, meaning it feeds off organic matter, like fungi. It is added in its nutrient intake by a short, stubby, branched root that resembles coral. Small white, purple spotted flowers appear in late summer.

As the name suggests, bog twayblade is found in wetland, open habitats. It has unremarkable yellowish-green flowers that are only 1/4” long that bloom in late summer.

Rare Plant Hunting

2006-09-15T17:12:00.000-04:00

Today I romped around Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. I located NYS-listed rare plants Eastern gama grass (Tripsacum dactyloides) and common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) on an upland copse in Goose Creek Marsh. I noted something interesting – that the Eastern gama grass only appears ringing the upland perimeter of Phragmites, which is highly invasive. Where Phragmites was not observed, gama grass was also absent. T. dactyloides was noted as bearing seeds, but it was too early for the persimmon’s fruits.

Also found a patch of Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense). This patch was very small in both size and number of leaves (ramets). Given the undisturbed nature of the site and the seemingly high habitat quality, one would expect to find the plant extensively clonal here - aka a much larger patch. This population will be incorporated into my study of habitat quality using mayflower as an indicator species for forest quality.

New plant listings found and identified from this trip include: climbing hempweed (Mikania scandens), water plantain (Alisma subcordata), three-nerved joe-pye weed (Eupatorium dubium); these are all NYC rare and new finds for the borough. I also found the NYC willow herb (Epilobium coloratum) and the not rare but still cool tussock sedge (Carex stricta).

New shrub in Fort Tryon

2006-09-13T19:40:00.000-04:00

Today I was in Fort Tryon Forest, northern Manhattan. Most people know the garden, but there is also a woodland that hangs over the Henry Hudson Expressway, just south of Inwood Hill Park.

This is one of those sites where there weren't a lot of existing records, because on a casual walk through I got 52 new listings. The most exciting was yellowroot (Xanthorrhiza simplicissima), because this species is new to City records. The shrub has deep green, pinnately divided leaves, that sprout in a tuft. It flowers in early spring, with many tiny purple flowers in drooping racemes. (And yes, it does indeed have yellow roots). The plant is not native to New York City, its range is south and east, from Pennsylvania to Florida.

Sand Sedge Spreading at Shore

2006-09-10T10:25:00.000-04:00

The Jersey shore - our beloved shore. After I got back from my Avalon trip, I remembered having read something about an invasive sedge at the shore. Sure enough - I found the culprit (in print, not in person). Asiatic sand sedge (Carex kobomugi)

How to recognize Asiatic sand sedge
Learn more about Asiatic sand sedge

Avalon's Dunes

2006-09-04T20:58:00.000-04:00

In our second installment of looking at plants in Avalon, NJ, we go from the garden to the dune, much more fun. I didn't walk on the dunes, mind you. Just along the designated pathways.
Dunes! Filled with grasses and forbs.
Maybe the most famous dune occupant, beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata). This is the species that is planted in rows whenever there is an effort made to save the beaches from erosion. Through its extensive root system, beach grass binds the loose sandy soils together. This stability allows other plants to colonize the dunes. Avalon has been preserving it's dunes for over 30 years. (They are allowing new development in the salt marshes, however, but that's for another day).
This is a neat plant, trailing wild bean (Strophostyles helvola). It's uncommon in New York City, but fairly common in NJ - because it loves these outer coastal plains. It's a ground-trailing vine in the pea family. This plant is very similar to pink wild bean (S. umbellata), which is rare in NY State.

Note the fruits are encased in bean-like pods.

Avalon's Gardens

2006-09-03T20:56:00.000-04:00

I'm lucky enough to be able to spend Labor Day weekends down the shore in Avalon, NJ. (And, it is "down the shore", not "at the beach"). Between lying on the beach, under an umbrella and jaunts in the ocean, I, of course, walk the neighborhood and scout out plants. Here, I present "Avalon's Gardens: Dos & Don'ts".

A definite do! Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a great choice for the full sun and well-drained soils that dominate the yards in Avalon. This is a grass that you'd find occurring on its own in such a site. (Ignore the exotic boxwood and juniper flanking it).
A definite don't! Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) are highly invasive! And, what's with the cedar chip fetish?
Yam-leaved clematis (Clematis terniflora). Looks great, smells nice, invasive. A don't. This photograph was taken in someone's front yard. You know where else I saw this plant? Along the trees of the Garden State Parkway, for miles and miles.
Ah no! Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) - invasive! (And obnoxiously huge, no?)

To end on a positive note - a joe-pye weed(Eupatorium sp.). A definite do, and quite the looker. Its a great nectar plant for butterflies, and has interesting seedheads in winter.

Back in the saddle

2006-08-30T19:23:00.000-04:00

I'm back to posting! Sorry for the very long radio silence, but as I was pregnant, field work became extremely arduous and I stopped lugging my camera around. Then the summer was spent home with the baby, looking at plants in Prospect Park. Not a whole lot going on, in other words.

But I've been craving dirty hands and my Gleason & Cronquist for months and now I get to indulge!

NY Sues over Invasive Pests

2005-12-01T12:27:00.000-05:00

Asian longhorned beetles (Anoplophora glabripennis)

The states of New York, California, Connecticut and Illinois are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for failing to impose effective controls against destructive insects that enter the country in shipping pallets and other wooden packaging.

Invasive insect pests - - such as the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), and pine shoot beetle (Tomicus piniperda) - enter the country in wooden pallets and other packaging made from raw wood. These pests have caused significant damage to trees in New York City, Long Island, Chicago and other communities. Thousands of trees have been destroyed in an effort to prevent the spread of these pests, which have few local predators or diseases to kill them. If these destructive insects spread from U.S. ports of entry into the nation's forests, they could further damage the timber, tree nursery, fruit orchard, maple syrup, and tourism industries.

Darwin in NYC

2005-11-18T11:11:00.000-05:00

The exhibition is billed as the "broadest and most complete collection ever assembled of specimens, artifacts, original manuscripts and memorabilia related to Darwin."

On view until May 29, Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

Now showing in Alaska

2005-11-04T11:59:00.000-05:00

When talking about purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), the noxious "purple menace" invader from Europe, its distribution in the United States is always mentioned. "Found in the continental U.S." or "in 48 states". Make that 49 - now appearing in Alaska as well. There are no safe harbors.

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T20:54:00.000-05:00

Doll's eyes (Actaea pachypoda {syn. A. alba}) MMMWAH!

Creepy, isn't it? The infructescence of doll's eyes makes an impression on you - wandering in a dark wood in fall, suddenly, it feels as though there are eyes on you. You look down, and it's true!

In late spring, when this member of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) is in flower, it would be easy to overlook, with it's small, white, star-like blooms held aloft sharply toothed, compound leaves. At this stage, it closely resembles its congener, red baneberry (Actaea rubra). But the real fun comes later in the season, when stark white berries with dark "eye" spots appear in early fall. (This spot is a persistent stigma from the flower). These berries are collected on a grape-colored stem, which makes quite a striking contrast that lasts over a month. And as tempting as it may be, don't eat them - they are poisonous.

In New York State, doll's eyes is considered "exploitably vulnerable", which means people poach it in the wild. If you come across it, for goodness sakes, don't pick it!

However, it would be easy to enjoy this plant at home - it makes an excellent addition to any garden in partial shade. Growing to 2.5 ft tall, both baneberries are long-lived and willingly germinate from seed.

I've been knotty

2005-10-24T20:52:00.000-04:00

Just in time for the holidays!

The place to buy mugs, clocks, and other gear for your favorite invasive plant hater...is here What stone cold heart can resist a knotweed-hating teddy bear?

HGG: Witch Hazel

2005-10-19T22:19:00.000-04:00

In another installment Home Grown Greenery we take a look at witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). Witch-hazel has a number of traits that help it steal the limelight, including smooth grey bark, attractive architecture, and colorful fall foliage. But the real show stopper comes when you least expect it. As November approaches and most respectable plants have dropped their leaves and gone to seed, Hamamelis virginiana bursts forth in floristic splendor. Clusters of small pale yellow blooms, each with four streamer-like petals, hug the twigs. Some flowers may linger on the branches into December.

In the wild, Hamamelis virginiana is a common shrub of North America’s eastern deciduous forest, making it an easy plant to get to know during a casual walk in the woods.

Slow growing and multistemmed, witch-hazel typically reaches heights of 15 to 20 feet. The shrub has a full, rounded crown and an attractive vase-shaped habit. Its bark—thin, smooth, and gray—is quite attractive and adds interest to the winter garden. In the shade of canopy trees, witch-hazel exhibits zigzag branching and may look as though it were roaming for light, which it is. Its branching pattern and its leaves—which are held perpendicular to the sun—make it a good competitor for the limited light found in the understory.

The leaves themselves are decorative. Broadly oval with scalloped edges and inverted V-shaped venation, they grow up to six inches long and mature from deep green to a rich golden color in fall. Scientists have speculated that the leaves are a food source for larvae of an endangered moth, Acronicta hamamelis. One definite leaf eater is the witch-hazel leaf gall (Hormaphis hamamelidis). To house its eggs, this aphid chews through the leaf underside and secretes chemicals that lead to the formation of Hershey kisses-shaped galls.

Each individual witch-hazel blossom is functionally monoecious, meaning that it’s equipped with both sets of reproductive organs but acts as either a male (producing pollen only) or female (producing fruit only). Thus, any chance of self-fertilization is eliminated. Instead, the flowers use their showy petals and faint fragrance to attract pollinators to facilitate cross-fertilization. Small gnats and bees are the main pollinators, and they are rewarded for their labors with sugary nectar and sticky pollen.

Researchers suspect that the plant’s unusually late flowering period induces insects to pay extra special attention to the unique blossoms—after all, the flowers are the only game in town.

After pollination, actual fertilization of the seed is delayed until spring. The fruit develops during the regular growing season and is newly ripened as flowers begin to open in late autumn. The fruits develop into hard, fuzzy, tan-colored capsules, under an inch long, and they carry one or two dark shiny seeds. In fall, the capsules burst and eject their seeds up to 25 feet away, but they persist on the branches for a while, resembling baby birds, beaks agape, expecting a worm. If left undisturbed on the forest floor, the seeds will germinate two years after dispersal. In the interim, they might be eaten by songbirds or small mammals, or even the occasional bear.

The ideal garden setting for witch hazel is part sun to light shade with moist, slightly acidic, organically rich soils. While best flowering occurs in full sun, planting witch-hazel out in the open will subject it to scorching and burning. Balled-and-burlaped or container-grown specimens can be transplanted in spring or fall. As a landscaping element, individual plants are showy enough to stand on their own, but witch-hazel also works well when multiple specimens are grouped together.

More on Hamamelis virginiana

New Invasive Plant Field Guide

2005-10-16T02:45:00.000-04:00

Invasive Plants Field Guide: An ecological perspective of plant invaders of forests & woodlands.

A source for information on key plant invaders in eastern forests. The guide examines 15 main species in four plant categories and presents extensive information about each. There is also a references section. Full color photos appear throughout.

The publication is put out by USDA (#NA-TP-05-04). It can be downloaded here as a pdf.

Will the real Aralia elata please stand up?

2005-10-14T22:04:00.000-04:00

Japanese angelica tree (Aralia elata)??? Nice fall color, which I have never seen on (& reported doesn't exist for) the ubiquitous other Aralia.

Japanese angelica tree (Aralia elata)??? with infructescence

Devil's walking stick (Aralia spinosa)???

Welcome to the world of botanical taxonomy. For your entre, I thought we would go right for the jugular. Devil's walking stick (Aralia spinosa) is native to the U.S. Most literature cites its range as Delaware & south (e.g., Gleason & Cronquist). One (Mitchell & Tucker) says it's native to New York State. So I called our state botanist who assured me that G&C was right, it is not native to NY. In fact, field work has shown that there is no A. spinosa in the state at all. Everything we have been seeing is actually Aralia elata, an exotic invasive. There is a population of Aralia spinosa out on Long Island, but that was shown to have piggybacked in on nursery stock from North Carolina.

So when a colleague of mine called me to say he had found an interesting Aralia, I was excited. To compare, we began with the familiar.

We went to Highbridge Park in northern Manhattan. There was a small cluster of less than 10 shrubs in an opening in the forest canopy, not far off a trail. This is the Aralia shrub that I see all over NYC. It had dark green leaves held at almost a 90 degree angle to the main stem. We were calling this "spinosa" based on the leaves - veination (joined before margin) & finely toothed, no obvious pubescence. The fruit panicles no longer held berries & had already whithered, so we didn't take a sample.

Now, the fun part. Next we went to Fort Washington Park, a subset of Riverside Park in northern Manhattan (around 158 St.). There were maybe 5 shrubs scattered along a stretch between a trail & fencing for the Metro North train line (so not obviously colonial like above). These plants were new to me - I had never seen this species before. We were calling this "elata" based on the leaves - veination (run to margin), broadly toothed & obvious pubescence. Additionally, these leaves were lighter green & held at a more acute angle to the midstem.

So we sent the samples to Brooklyn Botanic Garden - I could barely get to sleep that night, I was so excited to hear back what the new-to-me plant was. Apparently they think they are both the same species...Aralia elata. They said what they really need is the point at which the inflorescence attaches to the main stem - that is the critical piece distinguishing one from the other. Oh. We didn't get that. But still, sometimes I think taxonomists are too by the book. Can't you just tell which is which? If I can ID species with just basal leaves, I expect a little more info when I provide such bounty.

And so the mystery continues..........
OK, OK, I know. Don't go by leaves. Flowers/fruits are more stable, & so the basis of taxonomic determinations. But c'mon - these have to be two different species. (And additionally, if you aren't supposed to look at leaves, then why the difference between Smilax herbacea & S. pulverulenta (NYS rare) - the former has no hair on it's leaves, the latter has hair. Be consistent, people!)

Invasive willow threatens wetlands, rare plants in East

2005-10-09T02:22:00.000-04:00

Egads - another one.

From The Boston Globe

A European invader has been sneaking onto the New England coast, infiltrating and undermining the natives.

The large gray willow, a shrub or small tree that spreads rapidly and closely resembles our native pussy willow, has been flying under the radar for years, colonizing the edges of ponds and crowding out rare plants and animals throughout the eastern United States. It was just identified this spring.

Other countries that have been invaded by the species, Salix cinerea, also called the European gray willow, paint a grim picture. New Zealand considers it a major "pest plant". Australia calls it the worst of the invasive willows and warns it can cross-pollinate with other willows.

There is concern about the threat to coastal plain ponds that are host to a whole complex of rare insects, animals and plants, including the Plymouth gentian, rose coreopsis, hyssop hedge-nettle and slender marsh pink, as well as rare dragonflies and damselflies.

The European willow's presence is confirmed for Cape Cod and Rhode Island. It is expected to show up in coastal areas stretching from Maine to Long Island. The Harvard Herbaria in Cambridge, Mass., has a specimen collected in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, in 1967, so the willow has a lengthy head start on efforts to control it. (Yet ANOTHER reason why herbaria are so important!!)

The full article from The Boston Globe

More on Salix cinerea

Good Gardening: Medley

2005-10-07T21:53:00.000-04:00

Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum)

Solomon's seal, with it's tall, arching stems and showy foliage, is a statuesque addition to any shade garden. Once in the ground, they require very little attention.

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)

This is another example of why everyone should have a flowering dogwood...the rich fall foliage.

Evergreen woodfern (Dryopteris intermedia) and Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)

These ferns are attractive as border plantings in moist locations.

Mist flower (Eupatorium coelestinum)

Beloved by gardeners & butterflies alike, this easy-to-please member of the aster family (Asteraceae) is a rampant spreader, so give it lots of room.

Botanists battle aliens in Acadia park

2005-09-29T22:18:00.000-04:00

The plant busters, an elite team of national park botanists, had come to the Great Meadow on a whirlwind mission to search and destroy some of the alien, invasive species that have put down stubborn roots in the park.

"The more you look, the more you see," Betsy Lyman of the Northeast Exotic Plant Management Team said while pointing out an undulating green sea of alder buckthorn saplings. "It's an endless task."
The scrubby alder buckthorn saplings immigrated from Europe sometime after the 1800s, she said.

They spread rapidly and may be detrimental to the local wildlife in part because their large purple berries are attractive to birds but don't provide nearly the amount of nutrition that Maine's native berries, like the winterberry, do.

"For birds, it's kind of like eating junk food," Linda Gregory, Acadia National Park botanist, said. "This is not great wildlife food."

Read the full article from the Bangor Daily News

Phrag in Iraq

2005-09-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

With all of the bad news spewing forth from Iraq, I thought it might be time to post this. Phragmitis australis or "common reed" is one of the most invasive plant species in the northeast. Toiling diligently to destroy it, in this country restoration workers use mechanical & chemical means to squelch its vigor. Maybe we should take a page out of the Iraqi notebook. There, it is native & is used by Iraqis living in the northern marshes to build boats, housing, and temples. The temple in the photo below is said to be cool even at noon in the desert.

An article from NY Times in March on restoring the marshes of northern Iraq that were destroyed by Saddam Hussein.

More about Phragmites australis in the U.S.

Stalking the Wild Orchid

2005-09-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Sadly, wild plant pilfering happens all the time. People can be stupifingly self-centered & just plain evil when it comes to rare vegetation - as chronicled famously in The Orchid Thief. But maybe too I am a little more trusting, I didn't ask the NY Times reporter to don a blindfold.

Here, garden writer Ken Druse takes a walk with the Nature Conservancy in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey...and I am jealous.Read more

Guess what I found!

2005-09-19T21:03:00.000-04:00

Somewhere in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx...

Schreber's aster (Eurybia schreberi {formerly Aster s.})

This native species has adapted to life on forest floors by being colonial. That is, it reproduces vegetatively, producing a leafy carpet. When it's happy, it will put up flowers, which are white. Easily confused with large-leaved aster (E. macrophylla), which has light blue blooms. But let's say you missed the boat on the flowers, as I did...what to do? Examine the basal leaves closely. Both species have heart-shaped bases. However, in E. schreberi , if you spread the bases, there is a rectangular shape between the lobes. Large-leaved is simply heart shaped. Obscure? You bet. That's why we botanists make the big bucks. It's important to differentiate between the two, since Schreber's aster is rare in New York State. Both species are uncommon in NYC.

Rough-leaved goldenrod (Solidago patula)

But that was just a teaser. I knew that plant was there. The "guess what I found" is this goldenrod. "They are a dime a dozen," you are thinking. Friend, you would be wrong.

Sure, Canada, early, gray, and rough-stemmed are common along roadsides and in old fields. Even seaside goldenrod isn't limited to its namesake habitat. But S. patula is one of the fabled "wetland goldenrods", which makes it unusual & rare in NYC. I had never seen it.

I found it quite by accident, as is the case with the best botanical finds. I knew it was a special goldenrod, and so marked the spot to return the next day. I came back armed with my Gleason & Cronquist and Britton & Brown. When it keyed out to S. patula, it felt as though I had just won a prize - a new find for the city!

Good Gardening: Maidenhair Fern

2005-09-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

Maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum). Note that even
ferns have some color to offer the garden palette come fall.

The lovely maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) is a wonderful addition to a shady garden spot. Its delicate foliage whorled atop wiry black stems nicely complements broad-leaved wildflowers. The fern grows to 3 ft., producing spores in July-August, which is the best way to get new plants. It does reproduce vegetatively, but very slowly.

It's natural habitat is rich moist woods and streambanks, in circumneutral soil. In your garden, this plant does best in well-drained, moist, organic soils - or a comparable situation that mimics its wild environs as much as possible. That said, it isn't terribly fussy. Its whispy demeanor belies its toughness - it can withstand variable situations as witnessed below in this front yard in Brooklyn.

HGG: Beach Plum

2005-09-12T21:26:00.000-04:00

Beach plum (Prunus maritima) in fruit

Time for another installment of "Home Grown Greenery". I am partial to beach plums, for a number of reasons. As the name implies, this shrub haunts seaside dunes, and who doesn't like the shore? Due to the salt spray, the shrub develops branching patterns that resembles sculptured hewn from dark bark. It eventually creates large, suckering colonies that may reach 6 ft. in height. In spring, before the leaves unfurl, the branches are awash in scented white blooms & ecstatic insects. It's quite a spectacle for a plant whose natural surroundings are so spartan. Each individual blossom has five petals & numerous stamens, as do all members of the rose family (Rosaceae). By fall, these develop into dark blue fleshy fruits that are edible, but you must be quick! Birds also like plums. (To guarantee fruit set, plant more than one shrub.)

Along with other Prunus species, beach plum is the preferred larval host plant for several species of swallowtail butterflies (Papilio), along with the coral hairstreak (Harkenclenus titus), viceroy admiral (Limenitis), and spring azure (Celastrina argiolus).

Black knot (Apiosporina morbosa) is common on Prunus species. It is more aesthetically displeasing than deadly to the plants. Here are excellent photographs & a perkier review of the fungal infection.

The species is endangered in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. More about beach plum.

Nature's Revenge

2005-08-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Editorial from today's New York Times

The damage caused by a hurricane like Katrina is almost always called a natural disaster. But it is also unnatural, in the sense that much of it is self-inflicted. New Orleans is no exception, and while the city has been spared a direct hit from the storm, its politicians and planners must rethink the bad policies that contributed to the city's vulnerability.

An immediate priority is for the Senate to restore some $70 million that the House, in a singular act of poor timing, slashed from the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for the New Orleans district. The cuts could hurt the corps' ability to rebuild levees protecting the city. Meanwhile, the city itself must attend to a pumping system that is much in need of upgrading.

At the same time, there must also be an honest recognition of the fact that no amount of engineering - levees, sea walls, pumping systems, satellite tracking systems - can fully bring nature to heel. Indeed, the evidence is indisputable that systematic levee-building along the Mississippi upstream of New Orleans has blocked much of the natural flow of silt into the delta. That, in turn, has caused the delta to subside and made the city and its environs even more vulnerable to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which itself has been rising.

Upstream levee-building has also had the effect of turning a sluggish river into a fire hose, helping to destroy marshes and barrier islands that once provided some protection. The steady destruction of coastal wetlands by residential development and years of oil and gas drilling hasn't helped much either. The combination of subsiding land and rising seas has put the Mississippi Delta about three feet lower than it was 100 years ago.

All this, in turn, lends urgency to plans proposed by Louisiana politicians to restore natural hurricane protections by diverting water and silt from the river to coastal marshes and wetlands, and by rebuilding barrier islands. The effort is expected to take more than 40 years and cost an estimated $14 billion, substantially more than the $8 billion Everglades restoration project.

The administration budgeted $20 million for the project this year, mainly for the necessary planning studies. A lot more than that is going to be needed. New Orleans must learn to take care of nature if it hopes to survive it.

White Island Plant Walk

2005-08-28T18:49:00.000-04:00

This is the chronicle of the rest of my day in Marine Park, where I was to lead a Torrey Botanical Society plant walk.

White Island is a 73-acre former sand bar in the middle of Marine Park Creek. From the 1940s to 1960s, the site was built up through the addition of household garbage and sand. Areas with little sand cover and thus high levels of nutrients support Phragmites and mugwort. Note the sand bags in the photo below - these were put in place to keep the household garbage, the structural foundation of the island - from washing away.

The sections of the island harboring stockpiled sand today support a diverse array of grassland plants. But to get there, you have to hack your way through what seems like miles of Phragmites. It seemed like miles because I am sure it was miles...but only because my sense of direction was off. It took me quite a while to relocate the open grassland.

But finally I did. And it was like discovering a wonderland.

Eragrostis spectabilis, purple love grass

Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, sweet everlasting

Solidago juncea, early goldenrod

Plants of White Island in Marine Park, Brooklyn (partial flora)
Torrey Plant Walk August 28, 2005

Typical Native Grassland Species

HERBS – Flat-topped goldenrod (Euthamia tenuifolia), sweet everlasting (Gnaphalium obtusifolium), pinweed (Lechea maritima), jointweed (Polygonella articulata), saltwort (Salsola kali), early goldenrod (Solidago juncea), seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens);

VINES - northern dewberry (Rubus flagellaris);

GRASSES – beach-grass (Ammophila breviligulata), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), 3-awn grass (Aristida tuberculosa), purple love grass (Erigrostis spectabilis), panic grass (Panicum villosissimum), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium);

SHRUBS – false heather (Hudsonia tomentosa), northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), winged sumac (Rhus copallinum), poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans).

OTHER SPECIES FOUND (* = exotic, ! = invasive)

HERBS – common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)*!, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)*, horseweed (Conyza canadensis), winged pigweed (Cycloloma atriplicifolium)*, white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), bedstraw (Galium mollugo)*, camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris)*, yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta), pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), lady's thumb (Polygonum persicaria)*, sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)*, horse-nettle (Solanum carolinense)*, black nightshade (Solanum nigrum)*, sand spurrey (Spergularia rubra)*, common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)*;

VINES – hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium), Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculata)*!, Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia);

GRASSES – silver hairgrass (Corynephorus canescens)*, common reed (Phragmites australis)*!;

SHRUBS – Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii)*!, autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)*!, wrinkled rose (Rosa rugosa)*;

TREES – tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima)*!, white mulberry (Morus alba)*!, black cherry (Prunus serotina), green ash (Fraxinus pensylvanica).

Unprepared

2005-08-28T18:18:00.000-04:00

I always do this. I talk myself out of bringing along some obviously essential item because my field pack is too heavy. That is how I ended up this morning at the salt marsh of Marine Park without my boots.

To be fair, I had planned to stay out of the marsh itself, checking out the flora that rimmed the wet areas. I have seen Spartina alterniflora often enough that I could go without an up-close-&-personal viewing. What I didn't plan on was a poacher.

In the midst of my vegetative reverie, a middle-aged Asian man with a hand cart filled with tools & bags walked confidently by me. Suspicious. Sure enough, he proceeded to walk into the muck, pull out a tool & rake the marsh for mollusks. As you may have suspected, removal of anything from a park is illegal, especially the very animal life we are trying to conserve.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but you can't do that."
Nothing
"Excuse me, sir, you can't do that!"
Now he looks at me & smiles.
"Sir, you will have to stop that! You aren't allowed to do that!"
He shrugs his shoulders & gives me this look like he doesn't know what I'm talking about. So then I was reduced to repeating "No!" & "Stop!" while I walked out after him. I tried to stay dry, hopping from tussock to tussock, but that became futile after 5 minutes, when I slipped & went in to my knee. That's the thing with muck, you never know how deep it is.

By the time I reached him, he had out what I swear was a harpoon & was jabbing the water vigorously. He seemed to finally get it, & proceeded to leave without more protestation from me. As I climbed out of the low marsh, I watched him leave, cart in tow. I was so satisfied in having put an end to a poacher. I felt good.

Ten minutes later, I was in the nature center. This is a nice building which takes full advantage of the superb views with its large windows. As I was admiring the marsh, in the distance I saw a blue speck moving purposefully along the edge of the Spartina grasses.

BBQ

2005-08-26T17:35:00.000-04:00

Today, I was in Bronx River Park, monitoring a recently completed restoration project where much native wetland vegetation had been planted in place of Japanese knotweed. We were taking a lunch break, & relunctantly decided that we also needed to use the restrooms (which are horrifying on so many levels). As we approached the building, I smelled smoke. The source of the billowing gray plumes? A clean cut sixteen year old kid. He had an interesting little set up, as you can see from the photo.

"Put it out!" I yelled. He responded as if underwater, all movement slow & deliberate. He did make some attempts to squelch the raging fire, none of them very impressive. Meanwhile I was fuming. It hasn't rained in weeks! What if this had gotten out of control? Fortunately it was rather far from the forest. Unfortunately it was right next to the playground & adjacent to the Metro-North train line. Obviously, I was not dealing with the sharpest knife in the drawer.

He finally climbed up, out of the pit, to speak to me. He had an innocent face & indescipherable language skills.

"Da ya wa sa ra?"
"What?!?"
"Da ya wa sa ra?"
"Again, what?"
"Da ya wa sa ra?"
"I have no idea what you are trying to say."
"Ra! Ra! Ra!"
At which point, he holds out his hands to offer me - not "ra", but "ribs".

"They're good. I make good bar-be-cue"
"Well, there are facilities in other parts of the park where you can cook out to your heart's content. But you cannot do it here. We don't allow make-shift grilling."
"Oh. But they're gooooooood."
"No doubt, but you'll have to find yourself another place to hone your culinary skills."

During the course of our little tete-a-tete, he began to walk closer & closer to me. Finally, I told him he was welcome to stay & wait with me for the police to arrive.

After an "oh, man!", he hoped on his bike, pre-packed with his cooking gear & rode away. It was then I noticed the goulish Halloween mask attached to his milkcrate full of tools.

HGG: Canada St. Johnswort

2005-08-22T16:43:00.000-04:00

In today's installment of "Home Grown Greenery" we take a closer look at Hypericum canadense (Canada St. Johnswort). This native species is a member of the Clusiaceae or Mangosteen family. As you may have guessed, this family has its center of diversity in the tropics, with a few genera found in the more temperate climes. In fact, trees & shrubs are the more common plants found in this family, which makes the herbaceous H. canadense all the more intriguing.

Canada St. Johnswort may be an annual or perennial, but is always diminuitive, growing only to 20 inches tall. As with other Hypericum species, its leaves are opposite from each other, & alternate at 12/6 o'clock & 3/9 o'clock. Thus as one looks down the stem from above, they notice a cross pattern. This is the derivation of "St. John" (wort is the Old English word for plant).

From July through September, tiny, 5-petaled, yellow flowers appear on the tips of every stem. If pollinated, fruits develop - dark red conical capsules containing many small seeds.

The best place to find Canada St. Johnswort is in open, sunny, poorly drained areas such as marshes. This particular plant was found in southern Staten Island in an area of sandy glacial outwash with ribbons of clay soils. This plant is rare in NYC, as are its brethren - there are 5 other Hypericum species in the five boroughs, four are native, all are uncommon. One of the biggest threats to its future is the encroachment of trees & shrubs - shaded out by woody species as a result of succession. This is, of course, with the understanding that the biggest threats to our flora are always lack of conservation leadership. NYC natural areas have been destroyed through development & degraded by exotic invasives.

Butterflyweed as cut flowers

2005-08-20T20:03:00.000-04:00

I bought this bunch of butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) today at the Greenmarket. Most people think "weeds" when native plants are mentioned, but you have to admit that these are striking.

Jewelweed Runs Amok in England

2005-08-13T01:46:00.000-04:00

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), native here, invasive abroad.

Our ubiquitous jewelweed is an unwelcome visitor in England. Eric von Wettberg is studying the species genetic bottleneck in its adopted digs. Since a small number of individuals made the initial invasion, he is looking at how the plant has evolved its shade avoidance response (by which plants fit their growth patterns and phenology to maximize their success under a range of light conditions) to fit its new environs.

More on his work

An Alien Invader Spawns a Species

2005-08-07T11:08:00.000-04:00

From the Christian Science Monitor:
The influence wrought by invasive species could fuel an "explosion" of ecological change "to levels beyond all expectation."

Why didn't I think of this?

2005-08-04T19:50:00.000-04:00

Yes of course! The forest is full of birds! And to think, all these years, I had been assuming that their appetites were sated by the abundant fruits, seeds, & insects that forests naturally provide them. Oh, what a fool I have been!

As seen in Bronx River Park

Organic farms 'best for wildlife'

2005-08-04T16:34:00.000-04:00

Organic farms are better for wildlife than those run conventionally, according to a study covering 180 farms from Cornwall to Cumbria.

The organic farms were found to contain 85% more plant species, 33% more bats, 17% more spiders and 5% more birds.

Read article from BBC news

Ultra-violet Flowers

2005-08-01T16:05:00.000-04:00

This website is a wonderful introduction to the world according to insects. It is easy for us humans to forget that flowers look as they do not to draw satified sighs from gardeners but to attract potential pollinators - critical to their survival. And what we see is not the whole story.

Here is Pacific silverweed (Potentilla anserina) to humans:

And here is what insects see:

UN to Court over "Devil Tree"

2005-07-26T19:27:00.000-04:00

A tribal community in Kenya is planning to take a United Nations agency to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for introducing a harmful tree (the mesquite - Prosopis juliflora) to the country. The action, thought to be a world first, is being brought by the Ilchamus people of the Rift Valley, again the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Read more

Plants Shape Their Environment

2005-07-24T01:15:00.000-04:00

And people think plants are boring! Below is an excerpt of Dr. Valerie Eviner work on how plant species affect ecosystem processes with Institue for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.

Plants not only respond to their environment, but also actively alter their habitat. Different plant species can have distinct effects on almost every aspect of ecosystem structure and function. However, most studies investigating the effects of plant species on ecosystems have focused on one type of effect (e.g. N cycling, water dynamics, erosion, effects on other organisms). In order to understand and predict the ecosystem consequences of vegetation change, it is vital to consider the multiple, simultaneous roles that species play in ecosystems. These functions are often distributed independently among species.

More on this study
More on Dr. Eviner's work

Parks Even Parks Doesn't Love

2005-07-15T00:50:00.000-04:00

Highbridge Tower

SHAME on you, Adrian Benepe!

(As I missed the boat on linking it, here is the full article. Note that all fancy font work is mine, as are the photos - ed.)

METROPOLITAN DESK - NY Times

Parks Even the Parks Dept. Won't Claim; City Says Some Wretched Areas Aren't Worth Fixing
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

At University Woods, a city park high above the Harlem River in the Bronx, hypodermic needles, feces and used condoms littered the grounds on a recent day. Several large trees lay across the main pathway. Broken animal bones that some said bore traces of Santeria rituals were visible.

The 3.3-acre municipal park, whose grounds have long been a hideaway for drug users and prostitutes, was named the city's worst small park last month, for the third year in a row, by the advocacy group New Yorkers for Parks.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says city parks are in better condition now than they have been in nearly 40 years. He added, however, that a small percentage of the parkland the city owns -- including University Woods -- is not conducive to being actively maintained by gardeners, and that to do so would be ''a waste of money.''

''That park is not a park,'' Mr. Benepe said, referring to University Woods. ''That park is a vestigial landscape on the side of a hill. It has a series of paths that lead nowhere. It's a cliff side. It will never be a park.'' He added, ''Just because something is in our inventory doesn't mean it's worth taking care of.''

New York City has acquired almost 300 acres of parkland since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office in 2002. But critics say that the city started neglecting some existing parks -- most in poor neighborhoods -- long before Mr. Bloomberg named Mr. Benepe parks commissioner shortly after taking office.

Mr. Benepe bristles at the suggestion that the Parks Department favors certain areas of the city over others. ''The reality is that across the city in every neighborhood, the parks are better,'' he said. And while he says there is no formal two-tier system when it comes to maintaining city parks, he acknowledges that some are better cared for than others.

Just how many of the city's 1,700 public parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities are not actively maintained is not clear, but Mr. Benepe said that a limited number of city parks would ''never be great parks'' because they are on land unsuitable to be developed as parkland, or because they are in neighborhoods that are no longer significantly residential.

There is no list, no formal process leading to a park being written off. But it is clear that some parks, over a period of decades, have simply fallen out of favor with the Parks Department, which says that every park is supposed to be cleaned at least once a day.

The department, which decides how often horticulturists visit each park and what capital projects to pursue, has seen its operating budget increase to $201 million in fiscal 2005 from $152 million in fiscal 1997, and the department's capital budget in the current fiscal year alone is $850 million, up from $550 million last year. Much of that amount will be spent on developing recently acquired parkland and on parks along the waterfront, according to Parks Department figures.

Despite their unkempt pockets, some parks, like Aqueduct Walk Park in the Bronx, are heavily used. Many others, however, are similar to University Woods, and attract few visitors. Large swaths of Highbridge and Fort Washington Parks in Upper Manhattan, Soundview, Ferry Point and Pelham Bay Parks in the Bronx, Highland Park on the Brooklyn-Queens border and Idlewild Park in Queens, among others, have been designated natural areas by the Parks Department, to preserve wetlands and other natural habitats. Such areas require less rigorous maintenance than others. Some of these are now impassable for all but the most determined parkgoer due to overgrown trails, poison ivy, homeless encampments and garbage. Abandoned cars and boats have been left in some of the parks.

What these parks have in common is that they rely almost exclusively on city money, while the city's best-maintained parks -- Central Park, Bryant Park and Prospect Park among them -- are managed in part by private conservancies that raise money and hire workers independent of the Parks Department. The neglected parks also lack the community support and involvement present in the neighborhoods around the city's most successful green spaces.

''It is completely outrageous that poor communities are given this type of service when other parks are given adequate service,'' said Geoffrey M. Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates. ''Having prostitutes and drug users fill a park when a community needs parks, goes against everything government is supposed to do in terms of providing services and protecting people.''

The Police Department, not the Parks Department, is responsible for tackling serious crime in city parks. But Mr. Croft said that unmaintained areas provided a natural shelter for criminals.

Mr. Benepe said that any problems that exist are isolated, and that the department has a rigorous inspection process. ''This is a big system and you can't address every little problem,'' he said. Mr. Benepe said a lack of resources was not an issue either. ''The challenge is how to spend all the money we've been given,'' he said.

In all, the Parks Department's 28,800 acres take up about 14 percent of the total land mass in the city's five boroughs. About 12,000 acres of parkland have been designated natural areas, though some, like Central Park's Ramble, are well maintained and free of the trash and invasive species that plague the natural areas of other parks.

University Woods, for instance, has failed the Park Department's own cleanliness and general condition inspections for the past three years, and if its current circumstances are any indication, it has little hope of ever being a haven for anyone seeking a respite from city life. The last capital project in the park -- which involved repairing fences and walkways that are again in disrepair -- took place in 1997.

On a recent weekend in University Woods, in University Heights, a man and woman were seen having sex against a tree. Encampments for homeless people were scattered in the underbrush. Several areas had been littered with hypodermic needles, used condoms, needle cleaning kits and wrappers for ''Savage'' and ''TKO'' brands of heroin. And piles of feces could be seen on staircases.

The only evidence of the park's benches were rivet holes in the ground. There were no garbage cans, lights, restrooms or staff workers. Visitors have reported seeing a dead goat and the skulls of various animals, apparently after they had been sacrificed.

Julio Calderon, 31, who was walking a large pit bull outside the park, said he never stepped inside University Woods, though he lives nearby. ''The park is dangerous,'' Mr. Calderon said in Spanish. ''People who are in there do things I don't want to see.''

The parks commissioner said he would like to trade University Woods to a developer for more suitable park property, or to fence it off. ''You have to be pragmatic about these things,'' Mr. Benepe said.

The Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carríon Jr., agreed but called the park's current neglect a ''disgrace.''

''University Woods cannot continue to be what it is,'' he said.

A healthy forest within Highbridge Park. Recently found in the park was a fern species rare in NYC - Spinulose woodfern (Dryopteris carthusiana)

Not far away, in Highbridge Park, which stretches for two miles across Upper Manhattan, the scene was even more grim on a recent weekend. Huge sections of the 119-acre park set aside as natural areas have been taken over by homeless people who have built permanent shacks made of sheet metal and steel pipes driven into the earth. One of the park's residents is a heroin addict and prostitute who would give her name only as Joanne. Her makeshift house has a bed and a nightstand. She said she had lived there for 13 years. Men smoked crack cocaine a few feet from where a youth baseball game was being played.

Kelvin, who would not provide a surname, lives in the park underneath a Harlem River Drive entrance ramp. He lifted his shirt to show his heavily bandaged chest, where he said he had been stabbed the week before. He tapped a Bible on his nightstand, which lay atop some pornographic magazines. ''I almost died,'' he said in Spanish. ''God was with me.'' On a concrete wall, someone has scrawled graffiti: ''This might be the only place where New York is still New York.''

Mr. Benepe said that while Highbridge Park is ''much better than it was 10 years ago,'' it had been ruined decades ago when freeway ramps were built across it.

Mr. Benepe, who expressed both skepticism and surprise at the park's condition when told about it, said the city's plan was: ''Let nature take its course.'' ''Trees are growing, insects are buzzing, oxygen is being produced, and there's nothing wrong with that,'' he said. (Oh, that must be why the NYC Parks Dept is restoring the forests of Highbridge Park with native species - way to be abreast of your own agency, Benepe. And thanks too for negating, in one fell swoop, all the hard work done in Highbridge by both NYC Parks' Natural Resources Group & Bette Midler's NY Restoration Project).

Mr. Croft, the parks advocacy group president, said, ''Having prostitutes, drug dealers and drug users in parks is not going back to nature.''

Photos: Park visitors navigated the overgrown steps in Highbridge Park in Upper Manhattan after taking a swim in the pool. (Photo by G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times); University Woods in the Bronx, which is rife with litter, is rated the city's worst small park. (Photo by Richard Perry/The New York Times)(pg. B1); Some sections of Highbridge Park have been overtaken by drug users, prostitutes and the homeless.; All that remains of a bench above an overlook in Highbridge Park are the supports that held the seats. (Photographs by G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)(pg. B6)

Invasive Norway Maples Threatens LI Forests

2005-07-14T19:23:00.000-04:00

Exotic Norway maples invading a forest in Queens. Note the dense shade & lack of ground vegetation.

From the Long Island Botanical Society's newsletter, summer 2005 - summary of Wei Fang's research & article:

Norway maple (Acer platanoides)was first introduced to this country in 1760s & quickly gained popularity as an ornamental species. By the late 1990s, it was considered to the be the #1 planted street tree in the U.S. In recent years, Norway maple has expanded from its ornamental realm into sections of parks & nature preserves. Once there, it forms single species (monospecific) stands & inhibits groundcover establishment.

Wei Fang's three year study showed that not only is Norway maple expanding its reach within the forests of Long Island, but as the number of Norway maples increases, so too does the number of other exotics, such as Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) & winged burning bush (Euonymus alatus). Furthermore, limits the availability of resources to other plants - its larger leaves exclude other vegetation from receiving sunlight & it changes soil chemistry resulting in higher nitrogen loss.

Here is the abstract.

Rene Russo is my hero

2005-07-07T21:50:00.000-04:00

JUST about everyone in Los Angeles has a cause, but Rene Russo's is a decidedly lonely mission. While many of her Hollywood peers use their celebrity to exalt the hybrid Prius or bash Republicans, she is championing plants that many homeowners are unfamiliar with or, worse, dismiss as weeds.

Ms. Russo has become an advocate for the use of California native plants, which she is trying to promote as a low-maintenance panacea for the region's water supply uncertainties.

"People have equated natives with chaparral, with brush, with dead, and it's erroneous," she said with obvious frustration in an interview at her Brentwood home.

"I love the garden more than the house," Ms. Russo said as she walked down the rugged paths of her property.

Flora With a Star in Its Corner - New York Times

Google Earth

2005-06-30T15:38:00.000-04:00

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

Some suggested uses:

Amaze your friends with the proximity of Superfund sites to their homes.
Shock your family with the overwhelming loss of natural areas to strip malls & condos.
Horrify coworkers with the mindnumbing number of roadways that cut through our parkland.

Struggles with an Invader

2005-06-23T14:56:00.000-04:00

Back to Nature & What a Mess - from today's New York Times

An excellent example human's unexpected consequences on the landscape. Here, Anne Raver's struggles to contain the invasive tree - black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) on the family farm. Anne, I feel your pain. However, I wish she had discussed & compare the ecological roles of native early successional trees & exotic invasives - they are quite different. When the latter dominates an area, it is not succession, nor is it competition or evolution - it is an invasion. All our open space, even so called "pristine" landscapes, need to be nudged along. We are now in the sad position of having to manage lands just to enable processes that should occur normally on their own.

More about black locusts

Sundrops in gardens

2005-06-19T23:57:00.000-04:00

Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa ssp. glauca) a native plant and a lovely garden addition.

Raindrops on roses and whispers on kittens...

Chasing Beetles in NYC on NPR

2005-06-17T09:35:00.000-04:00

"The treetops of Central Park in New York City are being used by Western smoke jumpers. The folks whose regular job is to parachute into wildfires are propelling themselves into maples and elms in an attempt to stop the killer Asian longhorned beetle"...so reads the copy on the story of ALB in Central Park. Great coverage, but such drama...Federal firefighters from the west climbing trees...too bad they can't see their way clear to talking more about 1) how people every day contribute to exotic invasives destroying our natural areas and 2) what they can do about it.

Anyway, here's the story

Pines Threatened by Exotic Wasp Found Upstate

2005-06-07T19:07:00.000-04:00

Cornell University reports that one of its entomologists discovered a single specimen of Sirex noctilio Fabricius, an Old World woodwasp, raises red flags across the nation because the invasive insect species has devastated up to 80 percent of pine trees in areas of New Zealand, Australia, South America and South Africa. If established in the United States, it would threaten pines coast-to-coast, particularly in the pine-dense states in the Southeast. One target would be loblolly pines in Georgia.

Finding one bug in a trap is no small matter. Where there's one, there's likely to be more, says E. Richard Hoebeke, a Cornell senior extension associate in entomology. "Whenever you find an insect in a trap, it probably is established."

Learn more about S. noctilio

Catskills 3

2005-05-31T19:20:00.000-04:00

Painted trillium (Trillium undulatum)

Balsam fir (Abies balsamea)

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) a very lovely and very common shrub in these parts

Marsh violet (Viola cucullata)

MAY 30, 2005
SLIDE MOUNTAIN

TREES
Balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
Moosewood (Acer pensylvanicum)
Red maple (A. rubrum)
Sugar maple (A. saccharum)
Mountain maple (A. spicatum)
Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis)
Mountain paper birch (Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia)
Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
Red spruce (Picea rubens)
White pine (Pinus strobus)
Pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica var. pensylvanica)
Choke cherry (P. virginiana)
Black cherry (P. serotina)
Red oak (Quercus rubra)
Mountain ash (Sorbus americanus)
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

SHRUBS
Large leaf holly (Ilex montana)
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
Skunk currant (Ribes glandulosum)
Appalachian gooseberry (Ribes rotundifolium)
Northern blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)
Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. racemosa)
Early lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides)

FORBS
Mountain aster (Aster acuminatus) (syn. Oclemena acuminata)
Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)
American golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium americanum)
Spring beauty (Claytonia caroliniana)
Bluebead (Clintonia borealis)
Threeleaf goldthread (Coptis trifolia)
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Trout lily (Erythronium americanum)
Largeleaf avens (Geum macrophyllum var. macrophyllum)
Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadensis)
Whorled wood aster (Oclemena acuminata) – Aster
Common wood sorrel (Oxalis montana)
Large-leaved goldenrod (Solidago macrophylla)
Claspleaf twistedstalk (Streptopus amplexifolius var. amplexifolius)
Twisted-stalk (S. roseus)
Starflower (Trientalis borealis)
Wake robin (Trillium erectum)
Painted trillium (T. undulatum)
Wild oats (Uvularia sessilifolia)
Sweet white violet (Viola blanda)

FERNS & ALLIES
Intermediate fern (Dryopteris intermedia) Evergreen fronds old & newly emerging
Shining clubmoss (Huperzia lucidula)
Running clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum)
Ground pine (Lycopodium obscurum)

GRAMINIODS
Northern long sedge (Carex folliculata)
Greater bladder sedge (Carex intumescens)
Common hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa)
Small-flowered woodrush (Luzula parviflora)

Catskills 2

2005-05-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

The most massive beaver dam ever! Beavers are...(wait for it)...extirpated (gone, dead, locally extinct) in NYC.

Today we walked out to a bog that had been "lost" for over 100 years. Since this site has a number of rare species, I will limit site location to "Ulster County".

The walk out there was enchanting - an abundance of Eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis), young and old co-mingling - these were, amazingly, free of the hemlock woolly adelgid, (Adelges tsugae), the trees in our neck of the woods are usually older (i.e, no regeneration) and dying (i.e., infested with aphids). The hemlocks cast a deep, dark shade. A thick layer of sphagnum moss carpeted the forest floor, punctuated by drifts of ferns and common wood sorrel (Oxalis montana). I half expected to see leprachauns darting between tree trunks. This wood sorrel is not the same plant as the ubiquitous sidewalk weed we have here. If only O. montana were common in the five boroughs, but that's what you get for being sans mountains.

Long beechfern (Phegopteris connectilis), with wood sorrel & sphagnum moss peaking out from underneath. More plants native to New York State that are absent in the five boroughs. sniff.

The bog itself was amazing, with more heath shrubs than you could shake a stick at. There were blueberries and cranberries (Vaccinium spp.) and laurels (Rhododendron spp.) and winterberries (Ilex verticillata). I was in heaven. I love the heaths! (Maybe because it reminds me of the romantic moors in Scotland...)

Another native heath shrub, bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia). I wish this were in the city.

Another highlight was tussock cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum var. spissum). This bog is the plant's only appearance in Ulster County.

Despite it's common name, tussock cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum var. spissum) is actually a sedge. Ah, botanical linguistics.

One of the saddest sights was the discovery of plastic pots strewn around the bog. This was an indication that people steal plants from this place to sell on the cheap. This is especially true for plants that are popular/unusual and slow growing, such as trilliums, orchids, heath shrubs, pitcher plants, and sundews. Once these plants are taken from there ecological context, their chances of survival are slim. Your backyard in Brooklyn sure as hell ain't a bog. Plant poaching is far too prevalent. Be mindful of plants offered for cheap, potted in soils that look "natural" (as opposed to a greenhouse mixture).

False hellebore (Veratrum viride). This beautiful native forb is extirpated (locally extinct) in NYC. That's a sad thing.

The day ended with a scramble to see the Adoxa before sundown. This tiny plant is typical of circumboreal regions. This population is a disjunct, with other populations found in the western U.S. Muskroot (Adoxa moschatellina) is rare in NY. We found the strikingly drab forb along a shale road cut. It was neat to see the muskroot, but what really caught my eye was the purple clematis (Clematis occidentalis var. occidentalis). Look below, can you blame me?

Purple clematis (Clematis occidentalis var. occidentalis)

Plant List - These are just the species I jotted down...

5/29
WALK TO BOG

TREES
Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis)
Red spruce (Picea rubens)
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

SHRUBS
Creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula)
Eastern teaberry (G. procumbens)
Bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia)
Large cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon)
Small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos)

FORBS
Threeleaf goldthread (Coptis trifolia)
Early coralroot (Corallorhiza trifida)
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Common wood sorrel (Oxalis montana)
Northern pitcher-plant (Sarracenia purpurea)
Heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia var. cordifolia)
Purple trillium (Trillium erectum)
False hellebore (Veratrum viride)

GRAMINOIDS
Tussock cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum var. spissum)

FERNS
Long beechfern (Phegopteris connectilis)
Eastern marsh fern (Thelypteris palustris)

Sphagnum sp.

MESIC FOREST

FORBS
Red baneberry (Actaea rubra)
Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
Ramps (Allium tricoccum)
Crinkleroot (Cardamine diphylla)
Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
Horsebalm (Collinsonia canadensis)
Squirrelcorn (Dicentra canadensis)
Trout lily (Erythronium americanum)
Fragrant bedstraw (Galium triflorum)
Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)
Twisted-stalk (Streptopus roseus)
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
Purple trillium (Trillium erectum)
Painted trillium (T. undulatum)
False hellebore (Veratrum viride)
Canada violet (Viola canadensis)
Marsh violet (V. cucullata)
Yellow forest violet (V. pubescens)
White violet (V. renifolia)
Roundleaf yellow violet (V. rotundifolia)
Common blue violet (V. sororia)

FERNS
Ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)

SHALE SLOPES

SHRUBS
American black currant (Ribes americanum)
Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. racemosa)

FORBS
Red baneberry (Actaea rubra)
Muskroot (Adoxa moschatellina)
Pussytoes (Antennaria canadensis)
Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis var. virginiensis)

FERNS
Western oakfern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris)

VINES
Purple clematis (Clematis occidentalis var. occidentalis)

Catskills 1

2005-05-28T23:48:00.000-04:00


 A famous vista, painted by Thomas Cole, one of the founders of the Hudson River School of landscape painting.

It seems unbelievable that I have lived all but 14 months of my life in NJ/NY/PA (excluding vacations to exotic locales) and I had never been to the Catskills. To remedy this, I decided to go on the Botanical Society of America's northeast chapter meeting (joint meeting with Torrey & Philly Bot Soc) in Ashokan somewhere in the mountains.

On our first field day, we spent the morning in the water, canoing on North-South Pond, the purpose of which was to see bog mats, but we stopped to look at everything.


Pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) leaf on a Sphagnum bog mat in North-South Pond. Note the hairs on the leaf, which lead the insect into the bowels of the leaf. There it is trapped, and eventually dissolved and thus "eaten" by the plant. This adaptation is very common in plants growing in low nutrient environments, like bogs. This plant is native to NYC & environs.


Large cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) with last year's fruits on bog mat. Its leaves are long and oval, arranged on the arching stem of the diminuitive trailing shrub (center). Interspersed are some round-leaved sundew leaves (Drosera rotundifolia).  Both of these are native plants.

After a wobbly (and wet) start, we managed to climb atop a stable portion of the largest bog mat. What fun to watch the unstable "ground" beneath you undulate with every step. The anchors of these systems appear to be the shrub, leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata var. angustifolia). At the same time, it's a little nerve-wracking, especially when your boots are only calf high.

Next up, climbing the escarpment trail. This was just as well, since I was itching to get out of the canoe. Being so limited makes it hard to botanize!


Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) are common along trails and mowed edges.  A cute little native plant.

One of the most interesting observations was the elevated pine barrens - something I associated with coastal plains, but clearly, that was not the case here.

Pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) dominate the landscape 3,500 feet above sea level.

One of the most marvelous things was the endless array of native plants. More species and more individuals in an endless, unbroken progression. It was breathtaking to think that this was even possible. It made me sad to think how much we have lost in New York City.


My new favorite tree, striped maple or moosewood (Acer pensylvanica) in flower.  Sadly, this plant does not occur in NYC, but is native to other regions of the state.

Plants I jotted down (this is not a complete list)
Plant list 5/28
North/South Lake floating bogs

TREES
Gray birch (Betula populifolia)
Red spruce (Picea rubens) (very unusual, usually upland species)

SHRUBS
Allegheny serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata var. angustifolia)
Mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucronata)
Bristly dewberry (Rubus hispidus)
White meadowsweet (Spiraea alba var. latifolia)
Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa)
Large cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) used for eating
Small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos)
Withe-rod (Viburnum nudum var. cassinoides)

FORBS
Carolina fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana var. caroliniana)
Larger blueflag (Iris versicolor)
Northern pitcher-plant (Sarracenia purpurea)
Sweet white violet (Viola blanda)
Horned pondweed (Zannichellia palustris)

GRAMINOIDS
Blue joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis)
Northwest Territory sedge (Carex utriculata)
Threeway sedge (Dulichium arundinaceum)
Common rush (Juncus effusus)

BRYOPHYTES
Sphagnum moss (Sphagnum spp.)

OTHER (LICHEN)
British soldiers – Cladonia sp.

Escarpment walk

TREES
Moosewood (Acer pensylvanicum)
Sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
Yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis)
White ash (Fraxinus americana)
Red pine (Pinus resinosa)
Pitch pine (P. rigida)
White pine (Pinus strobus)
Pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica var. pensylvanica)
American basswood (Tilia americana)
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

SHRUBS
Running serviceberry (Amelanchier stolonifera) – tentative ID
Large leaf holly (Ilex montana)
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis)
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
Early azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum)
Prickly gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati)
Appalachian gooseberry (Ribes rotundifolium)
Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
Flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus)
Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. racemosa)
Early lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)

FORBS
Lyre-leaved rock cress (Arabis lyrata)
Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)
Mountain aster (Aster acuminatus)(Oclemena acuminata)
Pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule)
Wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Bluets (Houstonia caerulea)
Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadensis)
Indian cukecumber root (Medeola virginiana)
Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora)
Hairy Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum pubescens)
Early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis var. virginiensis)
Heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia var. cordifolia)
Starflower (Trientalis borealis)
Wake robin (Trillium erectum)
Painted trillium (Trillium undulatum)
Bird’s-eye speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) *
Arrow-leaf violet (Viola sagittata)

FERNS
Bulblet bladderfern (Cystopteris bulbifera)
Rusty cliff fern (Woodsia ilvensis)
Rock polypody (Polypodium virginianum)
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum)

Creationism

2005-05-23T15:27:00.000-04:00

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant
As the religious right tries to ban the teaching of evolution in Kansas, Richard Dawkins speaks up for scientific logic - from the May 21 edition of The Times.

One word: bravo.

Blunt Cliff Fern in Harlem

2005-05-21T00:27:00.000-04:00


Blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa) festooning the Metro North train trestle in Manhattan.  This fern is native and uncommon in NYC.

The ferns are back! Blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa) is growing quickly and by August should be nicely carpeting the sides of the Metro North train trestle that runs along Park Avenue in Spanish Harlem. This fern first came to my attention when I started my job 4 years ago. I walked under the trestle on my walk from the 103 Street 6 train to my office, all the while wondering what species they were but never stopping to look...until finally I did. Woodsia obtusa is not a common plant in NYC. Yet here they were, overwhelming the walls along Park Avenue.

Finally, the following year I did a floristic survey and found that within the mortar of this structure a unique plant community exists, including four fern species that are rare in the City.

Brief history - the trestle extends from 110 to 101 Streets. This portion is constructed of stone and was built in 1870. The mortar was created out of the rock, soil, timbers and various mining debris from creation of the rail tunnel under Park Avenue. Suitable fern habitat was created as these materials weathered and seeps were formed.


Close up of Woodsia obtusa

Surveys found 43 plant species. Whether native or exotic, the majority of the other plants present in the plots were weedy species more commonly found in marginal areas like vacant lots and roadsides. Five ferns were found, including sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis), a common wetland species, able to survive do to water pooling in the masonry. The other four are rare in NYC: ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron), walking fern (A. rhizophyllum), purple cliff-brake (Pellaea atropurpurea) and blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa), are typical of cliff habitats. At approximately 30 feet tall, this trestle acts as a Manhattan cliff.

If one looks carefull around the perimeter wall of Central Park, you will find both blunt cliff fern and ebony spleenwort.

Clay Pit State Park

2005-05-18T21:02:00.000-04:00

Clay Pit Pond in Staten Island

Had a most amazing day in Clay Pit State Park today - what a beautiful place. Very similar to NJ Pinelands (Barrens) except that we don't have the pitch pine (which is no small matter). There are individuals here and there, but actually pitch pine (Pinus rigida) is native and rare in NYC.

Ostensibly the trip was all about seeing swamp pink (Helonias bullata) - a Federally endangered plant,  in flower. {N.B. I only throw out the location because I know these were PLANTED, which is fine since the species is historically known from this part of Staten Island. I would NEVER EVER reveal a naturally-occurring population - not for all the tea in China, not for all North Carolina.} The only native occurrence of Helonias bullata in New York was known from Kreischerville, Staten Island between 1882 and 1892 in a red maple-sweetgum swamp. In Arthur Hollick's field notes at the Staten Island Museum he noted that he and N. L. Britton did a “wild dance of joy” when they first encountered the plants in May 1882. See what the dancing was all about.

Sadly, dancing did not prevail the day I was out.  We found the plants, but they are doing well; and so were not in flower (they only bloom when stressed).  Oh well.

  
My disappointing view of swamp pink (Helonias bullata) - basal rosettes

Here is a list of some of the things we did see - all new for my records.

KEY: * = exotic, ! = invasive, + = native & rare in NYC, no mark = native & common

TREES
Quercus alba - white oak
Q. bicolor - swamp white oak
Q. palustris - pin oak
Q. velutina - black oak
Quercus x bushii - a hybrid between Q. marilandica (blackjack oak) & Q. velutina

SHRUBS
Amelanchier canadensis - Juneberry
Chamaedaphne calyculata - leatherleaf +
Chimaphila maculata - spotted wintergreen
Comptonia peregrina - sweet fern +
Eleagnus angustifolia * - Russian olive
E. umbellata *! - autumn olive
Eubotrys racemosa - fetterbush
Lyonia ligustrina - maleberry +
Rubus phoenicolasius - wineberry *!
Salix discolor - pussy willow
Spiraea tomentosa - hardhack +
Vaccinium corymbosum - highbush blueberry

FORBS
Comandra umbellata bastard toad flax + (which might be the best common name for a plant ever)
Lepidium campestre * field pepper
Lespedeza capitata - round-headed bush clover
Linaria canadensis (Nuttallanthus canadensis) - blue toadflax
Symplocarpus foetidus - skunk cabbage
Viola macloskeyi ssp. pallens - smooth white violet

Walk through the Greenbelt

2005-05-16T22:32:00.000-04:00

Downy carrionflower (Smilax pulverulenta) in bud. This vine is a New York State rare plant.

Meeting in SI Greenbelt this morning, walking along one of the trails, the first thing I see is the above downy carrionflower (Smilax pulverulenta), a NYS-rare vine. This is in the same genus as greenbrier & catbrier (S. rotundifolia, S. glauca), which are very common in the city, largely because they withstand disturbance so well. Downy carrionflower is herbaceous & perennial, so the whole above-ground portion of the plant dies back every winter. Here, it is bursting to bloom; looking a lot like pants' zippers after the wearer has enjoyed a particularly filling meal.

My concern was that the 3 plants I found were located along the trail, and one had already been stepped on. Imagine how resilient you would be sans lignin; not very. Hopefully my felled wood barriers will protect them another day.

Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) in flower. A common NYC native shrub.

Orchids and Garbage

2005-05-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

Whorled pogonia (Isotria verticillata), one of NYC's few remaining native orchid species.

Ups and downs, highs and lows, thus are my moods when I am out in the field - either ecstatic or crestfallen. Today, I was both. Somewhere in Staten Island (you'll never get locations out of me), I saw orchids, NYS-rare plants, and lots of degredation caused by humans.

First, the good stuff. In a 40' x 40' area, saw about 500 stems of whorled pogonia (Isotria verticillata), half of which were in flower. This orchid is a congener (same genus) as the Federally-endangered small whorled pogonia (I. medeoloides). These orchids were found in a dry, heath dominated forest they love so, with bracken fern, red/black/white oaks, red maple, sweet gum, sweet pepperbush, blueberries, pinkster azalea, black cherry, bitternut, and sassafras.

One of the most pilfered plants in the wild because it's arguably our most beautiful native orchid, pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule).

Another wonderful site - pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule) in bloom. Found some teasers early on - just leaves. The one in the photo was hiding behind a fallen log. In all we found 12 ladyslippers, but only 3 were in flower. Years ago, this area was called "Orchid Hill". I think the locals got wind of it and have been stealing orchids from the wild. Little do they know, that once these flowers are taken out of their natural habitat, they die. They cannot survive without filimentous fungi called microrrhizae, with which they have a mutualistic relationship. The fungi, extending into the orchid and the surrounding substrate, bring nutrients and water to the plant, and are critical in every phase of the plant's life. Orchid seeds are extremely small. As such, they have no resources to grow on their own. Without these fungi, the plants would never germinate.



A common compatriot of these orchids, pinkster azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), a native shrub.
 Other plant finds: whorled indian cukecumber (Medeola virginiana), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), interrupted fern (Osmunda claytonii), Virginia chain fern (Woodwardia virginica).  Another neat find was sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).   This NYS-rare tree is found in wet areas, SI is the northern part of its range. Now, such plants, being rare, should be given some TLC. That was decidedly not the case in this park, as you can see in the photo below. (Warning, this is where the story starts to take a turn for the worse).

Here, the tree has clearly been vandalized, it has graffiti and a crown (base) damaged by fire. This is not a happy tree. Unhappy trees don't live very long, and so one less sweetbay in New York State.

Other areas of the forest are not regenerating due to disturbance. High volume foot traffic and mountainbike/ATV use contribute to the lack of shrubs or wildflowers in the photo below. And obviously, couches are not part of a forest ecosystem.

This last one is the pièce de résistance. With this kind of stewardship, the orchids et al. are not long for this world.

An Denegrating Homage

2005-05-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

...to the insects, not the humans. Cornell University just reported that two of its former entomologists recently had the job of naming 65 new species of slime-mold beetles. Three are new to science & so were named...for members of the U.S. administration. These lucky bugs are in the genus Agathidium - they are A. bushi Miller and Wheeler, A. cheneyi Miller and Wheeler and A. rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler.

Growing Up Denatured

2005-05-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

Too much inside, not enough outside results in folks who can't tell the difference between maples and oaks and why this distinction matters. Growing Up Denatured (New York Times)

So many people ask me questions about their daffodils or tulips, they have absolutely no concept of what a botanist is or where they can see a "wild" plant. Open your eyes! They are all around. Sadly, this notion is expounded upon in the media (the above article is about a new book). For example, an op-art piece that ran in the Times in October touted chicory as "NYC's plant", for very merky reasons (because "we do our worst, it gives us its best" - which is what, tastier coffee?) See my rebuttal here in pdf format.

And while this ecological illiteracy grows, we continue to lose our native orchids, lilies and magnolias.

Mother's Day Flowers

2005-05-08T18:27:00.000-04:00

flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), a native tree of our forest understories

Walked through Prospect Park on my way to the Brooklyn Museum with my family. Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) & flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) were in bloom. What says "Thanks, Mom" more than native flowers?

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Tree Graffiti in Conference House Park

2005-05-05T20:16:00.000-04:00


To the tagger, this was totally unnecessary.

Rare Oak Woods, Staten Island

2005-05-04T23:51:00.000-04:00

Early lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum) in flower. The flowers are always described as "white", but as you can see, they are so much more. A common NYC native shrub in dry, sandy soils.

Today I went to Conference House Park, to look for a site to plant rescued plants from Kreischerville up the road. These "rescued" plants are listed as rare in New York State - blunt spikerush (Eleocharis ovata) (S1) & fringed boneset (Eupatorium hyssopifolium var. laciniatum) (S2), which is the reason why we went to so much trouble to dig some up - otherwise they'd be sitting under the Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath Beyond, Chilis & Christmas tree store that was put there in its place. God knows we need more strip malls, especially sharing a very long border with a state nature preserve (Clay Pit).

Anyway, on my way to Conference House Park, I stopped by an area we refer to as "Rare Oak Woods" because it houses, wait for it, rare oaks. Onsite there are willow oaks (Quercus phellos), an S1, that are hybridizing with more common oaks (black, red). These hybrids can be prodigious producers of acorns, and subsequent generations often results in pure willow oak offspring. A super rare oak is the hybrid Q. x rudkinii, a cross between willow oak and blackjack oak (Q. marilandica), another rarity. Mostly these plants are rare in NY because they are at the northern part of their range. This also means that without all the hybridization, it would be difficult for them to reproduce. Ah, oaks. For more on NYS rare plants

Rare Oak Woods has very sandy, glacial outwash soils, as does this whole area of southern SI. This makes for really neat plant communities, with lots of heath shrubs. I love the heaths. Most people think of Heathcliff & Catherine ala Charlotte Bronte (writing out "Heathcliff" made me think of that Michael Penn song, "No Myth". I really like that song. Whatever happened to him anyway?); but the northeast has lots of native woody plants in this family (Ericaceae).

Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) in flower, with a Lepidopteran visitor. Another common native shrub.

Yet another interesting plant was pawpaw (Asimina triloba), another rarity (S2). This tree isn't actually native to NYC, it naturally occurs in western New York State, but there is a colony in Staten Island, planted by a former homeowner in the 1800s with seed from Indiana. The grove produces flowers (see below) and fruits. The latter are edible, reputed to resemble bananas both in taste and aspect. Haven't tried any yet, but hopefully this summer I will remember to make a trip down there.

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) in flower, native & rare in New York State.

Old growth & salt marshes in Pelham

2005-05-03T18:37:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is about Pelham Bay Park, but lately I feel like I live there. Not that I am complaining. Anyway, had a field meeting out there and went to part of the park that I had never been to before. It was like the enchanted place Olivia Newton John sang about in "Xanadu". But more on that later.

Mockernut (Carya tomentosa), a NYC native tree, leaves emerging with ants.

First we walked through some old growth forest on Hunter Island. I know, everyone tells you there is no old growth forest in New York City. Well honey, you can now tell your friends they are all washed up. Here is the proof...


tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipfera) trunk

See how the bark on the tulip tree is at the base, how it's broken up? That is a sign of old growth in trees. "Old growth" is defined as >150 years, although I think tulip trees may reach the fissured bark stage earlier, around 125 years or so. But you get the point - OLD.

dwarf serviceberry in flower - native and uncommon in NYC - very cool!
So back to Xanadu. We walked out over the salt marsh to one of the many outlying islands, and it was breathtaking (except for the scary vodoo doll found by Erik Kiviat). Here was a sandy soil community of juneberries, sassafras, heath shrubs, panicled hawkweed and gall-of-the-earth. This was the first time I had seen dwarf serviceberry (Amelanchier spicata), found in only 3 parks in the city. I was reveling in it - a pristine, untouched chunk of nature. Ha! the other side of the island had this...

I couldn't believe it! After I stopped ranting, I thought, well, at least these homeless folks have a little hobby. Later I found out that they are not homeless, but local old Italian guys who think the park is their private property. Warning to the old men, I am watching you.

The secret section in Central Park's conservatory garden

2005-04-26T17:35:00.000-04:00

Plants native to New York on display in Central Park
The Conservatory Garden at Fifth Avenue and 104th Streets happens to be directly opposite my office. I hardly ever go in there, though, since as the weather warms up, I have natural areas to attend to. But today, mired in office work, I took a break from the desk and walked over through the big iron gates.


emerging ostrich fern (Mattheuccia struthiopteris) looks majestic. Note last year's reproductive fronds. In the wild, this fern is native & very rare in NYC, found reportedly in Pelham Bay Park and nowhere else. It is rare in New York State.

There are always flocks of people, nay hordes, masses, a sea of humanity milling through the garden, tourists oohing and ahing at the tulips and euonymus (yawn). What most of the don't know is that behind the well-manicured hedges, there are sweeps of native plants in all their splendor. I don't believe these were part of the Miller redesign, but they are a nice touch. I just wish they were labelled as such, then people might be more apt to think of native plants as less weedy and more gorgeous.


Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) and wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)

, both are shade tolerant native plants found on forest floors.  Note that the poppy has an exotic doppleganger, celandine (Chelidonium majus), which can be invasive.  When buying native plants, ask for Latin names to be sure what you are getting.


Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginiana) & unfurling fronds of maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum).

Gratuitous flower picture

2005-04-25T19:31:00.000-04:00


Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginiana)

I'm in a bluebell state of mind.