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!

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Brighton and Hove, UK: Primulas in the urban jungle

“Some gangsta primulas hanging tough in the urban jungle of Hove,” as described and captured by new contributor Alberto Schiannini.

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Near Washington, D.C.: Spring blooms by streetlight

Today’s springtime urban plant beauty was captured at nighttime, by Sarah Parker, in a Home Depot parking lot near Washington, D.C. I’ve always found blossoming spring trees to be most beautiful at night, glowing under the streetlights, but have never gotten a good shot of them. I’m so glad Sarah captured this sight for us [...]

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Italy: Call for texts about stratification and nature

I was happy to receive an email from Limno, a interdisciplinary collective  based in Italy that researches nature – in many senses. They are seeking contributions for their upcoming editorial project on stratification. The project is centered around a series of walks at an old fort in Venice (yes! always happy to meet other people [...]

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An apple tree

Sorry to leave you all Urban Plant-less for a few days after I’d managed a winning streak/week of daily posts. As you may have heard, Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. I freelance for a company that makes Apple software, and we were all pretty preoccupied today. I know that all has nothing to do with [...]

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Berlin: Lavender Scavenger, Karl-Marx-Allee Fountains

What is a Lavender Scavenger, besides a bad name for an indie band or a misguided cocktail idea? Well, it describes the person doing some urban foraging on Karl-Marx-Allee, while I was enjoying a sparkling rhubarb juice on the front terrace of Café Tasso…

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Brooklyn: Trees wearing sweaters

The weather has been very mercurial lately, swinging from warm summery days for short sleeves to gusty days like today when I go back inside to get my sweater. The weather is whipping the trees around too and I bet some of them would be happy to have sweaters too, like these trees I saw [...]

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Brooklyn: More on plants in the nighttime

Last summer I ruminated about whether urban plants are able to “sleep” in the presence of street lamps. (It sure is difficult for those of us humans with a light shining right into our window!) My mind came back to this question as I was taking a few more pictures of plants at night. Above, [...]

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Brooklyn: Plants making shapes

If a plant was trying to talk to you, would you know it? Would you be able to decipher the message? As I passed a giant spread of ivy covering the chain-link fence along Prospect Ave. (betw. 5th + 6th Aves), I noticed shapes made by the ivy in its in-between spaces. Might these shapes [...]

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We have a winner! Subway quiz prizes & answers

Our quiz about plants near Berlin’s U8 subway line is officially over! The poster in the Bernauer Straße station came down last week and it’s time to announce a winner and reveal the answers to the quiz. If you haven’t tried the quiz, you can still find it here – just for fun, no more [...]

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