Lyon, France: Flower power, or, bouquet tree

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Berlin-Mitte: Plants for rent

Spotted yesterday near a group office space I’m thinking about joining, if they’ll have me. Lots of interesting plants near there, so let’s hope it works out!

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Berlin: Dandelions between rocks and mint green stripes

Spotted today on Bernburger Straße in the northwest end of Kreuzberg, near Anhalter Bahnhof.

 

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‘Round the world, instantly, with plant photographers

Let’s travel to some cities other than Berlin and New York to marvel at their plant life. Our guides will be a couple of photographers from Instagram, a Twitter-esque network for sharing mobile phone snapshots. It’s a fun way to experience daily life in faraway cities, especially when you glimpse some greenery, as in the the lovely shot above, “Amsterdam morning,” by Ulla Välk (@bliksem). She’s based in Amsterdam but travels frequently, sharing sights from around Europe. Read on for more from Ulla…

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Brooklyn: Nighttime weeds along the Gowanus Canal

On a recent warm night while traversing the Gowanus Canal, I spied a couple suspicious green characters lurking about, like this many-headed ivy monster…

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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 for his university magazine!

He commented, “Somehow it always reminds me that it doesn’t matter how bad we treat the environment, there are always plants and animals which can deal with that and will even survive mankind.” But he added: “Still I think treating the environment in a good way is the better option.”

I love this photograph above, with the tree of heaven sapling looking so happily squished into its tiny nook. As I wrote in my followup post to Leslie’s, this tree almost seems to prefer growing out of the most restrictive spaces.

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Brooklyn: Urban Plant Videos!

On July 12, in the high noon sun, I caught sight of a plant living down below the street, underneath the subway grates at 9th Street and 6th Avenue.

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Brooklyn: Climbing plants (in and out of control)

With the ivy-graffiti still on my mind, I’d like to share some more amazing instances of climbing plants I’ve discovered in Park Slope. This photograph that I took a little while ago, with its lush, dark ivy, reminds me of Leslie’s photograph of Juncker’s Hotel Garni, minus the beautiful way the ivy flows into windowboxes.

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Brooklyn: Ivy-graffiti, revisited

Last fall, I was impressed by the multi-colored transformation of ivy on the side of a building above the Prospect Highway, which outdid the artistry of the graffiti underneath it. To my dismay, I recently discovered that the ivy has been cut back and entirely removed from the lower part of the wall, leaving a mass of dead leaves on dead branches still clinging to higher part of the wall, extending almost to the roof, out of reach.

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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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