Ailanthus-stories: Reader photos from Karlsruhe, Germany

We recently received correspondence from Maz, one of our readers in Germany, who sent us photographs of ailanthus altissima, the tree of heaven. He had previously commented on Leslie’s post about the infamous tree, excitedly mentioning that it was his favorite tree and that he had written an article on it a few years ago [...]

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Stockton, CA: “Family Sees Image Of Michael Jackson In Tree Stump”

Photo courtesy CBS
Though perhaps a bit off topic, this CBS13 article from my hometown, “Family Sees Image Of Michael Jackson In Tree Stump,” was too good to go unmentioned. Talk about plants making shapes and speaking to us! And holding mirrors up to our minds…

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San Francisco: the fantastic, the amazing Living Roof!

The amazing Megan of Megamoog recently photographed this bizarre-looking green roof and shared it on her Flickr photostream. Though I have been feeling like there are just too many stories about green rooves in the news these days, this one had such a cute, alien, submarine-spaceship look that I had to find out more, so [...]

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Urban Tumbleweeds in Redwood City, NYC, Nevada

Today’s photo comes courtesy of reader and sister Phoebe, who writes from California: “In a town covered in pavement, aka Redwood City, the origins of this 4 foot wide tumbleweed is a mystery.”

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The comeback tree: Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven

Photo taken in Mainz, Germany by Jo Spittler
A lively discussion about Ailanthus altissima broke out in response to my last post about Marko finding a plant busting through the pavement. Observant reader Jo Spittler suggested that the  ”breakthrough” tree might be an Ailanthus, also known under such poetic names as tree of heaven and ghetto [...]

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San Francisco: Two fenced-in spaces: an abandoned gas station vs. the concrete terraces of an imposing church

During a visit to San Francisco last week, I was hanging out in the Mission with an old friend from college and we passed by this closed-down gas station ripe with weeds and graffiti. On the sidewalk in front of the lot was a Heidelberg press sitting shinily in the sun. My friend’s attention was [...]

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Buenos Aires; Frankfurt: Potted plants with personality

Yet more peculiar plants from other places, courtesy of a reader. My sister Phoebe is a frequent flier with an eye for odd details in the streets, including curious plants. Here are a few greens she spotted in Tokyo.
The picture above is from her recent trip to Buenos Aires. She writes: 

This is the main street [...]

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Grenoble: Bending trees at research reactor

Recently, I found myself explaining Urban Plant Research to several quantum physicists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin. I felt a bit sheepish describing our not-very-scientific approach to “research” and didn’t expect these real scientists to think much of such a whimsical project. But one of them, Elisa Wheeler, was very enthusiastic, sharing her own story [...]

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Tiny flowers? in Hamburg

  
Photographed by Marko Förstel
Marko, who last sent us some great plants from Aarhus, Denmark, is currently working in a lab in Hamburg where he has had to spend the first days of spring working 12-hour (or longer) shifts indoors.
He writes: “I attached a picture of flowers which made me feel good
after 13h playing with knobs [...]

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Suburban plant research: Stockton, CA

Traveling back each year to the place I grew up, I notice changes in the commercial and residential landscape: bookstores that have gone, chains that have moved in, friends’ families who have moved away, the spreading of the suburban perimeter. I notice new traffic lights and speed bumps while driving through the old neighborhood. But [...]

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