Berlin-Friedrichshain: Club kids

Big bro and kid bro dandelion hanging out in front of the techno club ://aboutblank. Giving them a once over: cool couple hops and Ailanthus altissima.

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Berlin: Taking spring into his own hands

Snow is still on the ground a week after Easter. Most Berliners are busy complaining about the total absence of spring, but my neighbor Herr Mischke has taken matters into his own hands. On the mountain of old snow in front of his bookshop, Atlantis, he’s throwing this spring’s first garden party on the icy peak.

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Geografische Buchhandlung Atlantis is an independent bookshop ‘for reading travelers and traveling readers,’ with maps, travel guides, and general interest books (mostly in German). Karl-Marx-Allee 98, Berlin-Friedrichshain.

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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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Berlin: Moss real estate

Moss house in Berlin.

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New Haven area: photography by Jordan Nodelman

Yellow Line, photograph by Jordan Nodelman

Can plants in the suburbs also be considered urban plants, or is their situation completely different? What about places like Greater New Haven, Connecticut, that feel urban in some areas and like suburbia in others? Can interesting frictions be observed between plants and the human environment in these places? During my recent trip to New Haven’s City-Wide Open Studios, I had the privelege of meeting and seeing the work of a local artist, Jordan Nodelman, who is exploring the built environment of this area (and others) and often captures plants in relation to man-made structures of all sorts. Read on for more…

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Berlin: Let us out!!!

Spotted on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin-Friedrichshain near the computer game museum.

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Berlin: You’re so vain…

Plants in the bathroom mirror. Spotted this morning on the sidewalk of Gubener Straße, one of Friedrichshain’s greenest hidden little streets.

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Berlin: A summer’s worth of wild growth

Things are lushest at the end of summer, especially this summer in Berlin. Weeks of rain alternating with a few super-hot days mean plants growing prodigiously and in more places than I’ve ever seen – or am I just noticing them more? Above, arugula elbows in next to the stinging nettle near the Modersohnbrücke in Friedrichshain, the bridge where young folks gather to watch the sunset. Now they can have a little snack with their cheap beer.

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Berlin: Incidentally observed Friedrichshain plants (or, Instaplants)

Taped-off scene of destruction: urban plant carnage at Boxhagener Platz in Berlin.

Now that Urban Plant Research has an Instagram feed in addition to this here blog, some plants I see wind up landing only one on platform or the other – it’s hard to keep tabs on them all. Here’s a trove of Berlin summer plants that I’ve recently posted on Instagram.

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Berlin: Heaven on earth

Baby tree of heaven on Mainzerstraße, Berlin-Friedrichshain.

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