Berlin: Knit for the trees

Tackily dressed, but warm, tree spotted in Samariter Kiez in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

Berlin: Green under the manhole cover

Did you ever wonder… what can happen under… under a manhole cover? I had to stop in my tracks while strolling around Sonntagstraße in Berlin-Friedrichshain recently – there was something alive down there!

Hamburg: “Ultra plants” exhibition opens tonight

Artist duo Iris-a-Maz invite us all to their new video installation, Ultra Plants, opening tonight, May 11, in Hamburg. As fellow artistic investigators of urban plants who have contributed insights and images to Urban Plant Research in the past, Iris-a-Maz have now turned their attention to so-called weeds.

Dandelions around the world!

Photos in response for our call for dandelions, to wrap up the week! This dreamy close-up is from Sarah Parker, aka @sparkler on Instagram, as is the following trio…

Neu! New! Nouveau! Issue 50 of ‘Balkon & Garten’

Our favorite zine, Balkon & Garten, is celebrating its 50th issue – with silver stickers and sparkling stars. Urban Plant Research hereby extends its warmest congratulations to B&G on eight years of lovely images, texts, design and dialogue on humans’ relationship to nature, in Berlin and elsewhere.

San Francisco: Urban slants, urban plants

On the sloping streets of San Francisco, local plants are interacting with the local architecture, growing against all odds. Phoebe Kuo sent in the above photo, reporting, “An intrepid urban plant seeks refuge on a steep San Francisco incline on Hayes Street, facing Alamo Square park (home of the famous Full House ‘painted ladies’), inside a nice, wet rain gutter.” Let’s take a closer look…

Berlin: It’s definitely dandelion time

As far as prolific growth and prevalence go, the dandelion is definitely Berlin’s plant of the moment. Yellow blossoms are carpeting every median strip and every unoccupied patch of grass in the city…