California: suburban plant research by Phoebe

Do you see urban plants in this picture? What about graffiti?

My sharp-eyed sister Phoebe did. She observed some interesting sidewalk phenomena during a recent visit to our childhood home:

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Half Moon Bay, CA: Succulent seaside garden

How many different succulents can you count in this picture?  I tried to count them all and lost track. This incredible garden, which Sara and I saw as we visited a rustic little beach by Half Moon Bay on New Year’s Eve, is clearly the product of human intervention. I highly doubt any natural seaside cliff would be so diversely and densely populated.

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Long Beach, CA: California poppies(?), or, Schlafmützchen

I captured some specimens of California poppy, the beautiful state flower, in Long Beach on our recent trip to California…. or are they all poppies?

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Santa Cruz, CA: Post-Christmas cactus

Once in awhile, in addition to 3d, living plants, I document depictions of plants, too. After eating some fantastic tacos in Santa Cruz early last month, I noticed a blobby little urban mural cactus hiding behind the Christmas decor.

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Santa Cruz, CA: Plants upon plants

Spotted last month on Soquel Avenue, the main drag in the sunny beach town of Santa Cruz, California. This luxuriant viny plant is hurrying up a high wall to join hordes of fellow plants, sitting in a row in little pots. I would love to go back in a year and see if the vine has reached its goal! For that matter, I’d love to go back right now – here in 15 C-below-freezing Berlin, there’s not much greenery to observe or much motivation for going outdoors.

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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 I asked Megan for the scoop. It turns out that this is no average green roof, but something much more wonderful.

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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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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 until the birth of Urban Plant Research, I largely took for granted the strangeness of American suburban landscaping and the role plants play in setting the tone of this environment. This time I began to look.

Among tidily-kept lawn-shapes and bush sculptures, rock gardens and cement-scapes, here and there I found an errant wildness, like this lovely tree spouting fiery plumes from within the confines of a nondescript roof.

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