It looks like Sara and Leslie are not the only curious duo hot on the trails of Berlin’s wild plants. This new guidebook, to be published this summer, also finds two creative women, Heiderose Häsler and Iduna Wünschmann, seeking out often-overlooked plants and researching their connection to the people and history of the city.
Titled Berliner Pflanzen: Das wilde Grün der Großstadt (Berlin Plants: The Wild Greenery of the City), the book is presented by a small publishing house called Edition Terra that specializes in guidebooks about Germany, with a special focus on trees and gardens (and windmills!). The book has 21 chapters and shares some topics with this blog, such as edible plants and the triumph of the Chinese immigrants (Ailanthus). But it also goes off in its own directions, such as putting a positive spin on the proliferation of non-native plants like arugula: that the plant population of Berlin sets a good precedent for the human population by being culturally diverse .
I received a preview broschure with an excerpt from a chapter about Mauerblümchen, which is called Kennilworth Ivy in English, but whose German name literally means Wallflower, immediately calling to mind the various walls that have stood in Berlin, from The Wall to the old city wall from the 14th century. The excerpt looks promising – lovely pictures, history, and an interesting side story about how interns at the veritable old porcelain company Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin have created a fresh new design honoring this humble native flower.
If you’re interested in the book, it will be available in German later this summer, directly from the publisher’s website. The list price is 14,80 Euro but for pre-orders placed by July 15, there’s a special price of 11,80 Euros.
If you’d be interested in reading the book in English, please write to the publisher and let them know! They do publish English versions of some of their books. I’ve already emailed them to say I’d be interested in working on the translation.
If you know of any other good books about urban plants, or about plants in New York City, please let us know. We will be putting together a small reading corner at our temporary Urban Plant Research community center at Open Source Gallery and will be hitting the Brooklyn library to stock up on useful books.
urban plant research 
This book looks amazing! I do hope they come out with an English version. By the way, I’ve been taking out of the library field guides for plants in urban areas as well as some great literature published by the NYC Parks department. I’ll start compiling a list for the exhibition.
Hi Urban Plant Researchers,
when I spotted the article about that book I first thought: “At least!” Because I am looking for a good field guide for the german urban flora since years. Unfortunately after reading closely I saw it is more a collection of details about Berlin … but still I think it will be a must for me.
Referring to your research for other books…the only field guide to urban plants I found jet is one for Amsterdam ….. IN DAMN DUTCH grrrr, but still I am working with the pictures and latin names since 4 years, so I can recommend it.
The publisher-page is under construction, so only the details:
Stadsplanten
by Ton Denters
Fonteine Uitgevers 2004
90-5956-075-2
I think its about 20€
Greez —> Maz
Hi Maz,
Glad to hear the book is of interest to you, even if it’s not exactly what you were hoping for. Yes, it does seem that it is more like a tour guide for Berlin by way of its plants, and less a guide to the plants themselves.
Dutch is frustrating because it is close enough to German that you think you can understand it, but the you can’t really! However, for awhile I was trying to learn some Dutch anyway using the very entertaining blog Dutch Word of the Day.
Anyway, I actually own a very good field guide to German urban plants, Handbuch der Wildwachsenden Großstadtpflanzen by Helmut Völter, a graphic designer who created the book as his thesis project at the art academy HGBK in Leipzig. He received a prize from the Institut für Buchkunst which consisted of them publishing the book. Unfortunately it was a limited edition of only 500 copies and when it won the silver medal from the “Schönster Bücher aus aller Welt” (The most beautiful books from the entire world) last year, it immediately sold out. And since the book is so beautiful and fragile, you don’t want to take it out in the field anyway, even though it is supposed to be a field guide. So for practical purposes one might hope to find another book. But maybe you can find a copy to look at in a library somewhere near you.
Hi Leslie,
I have heared of that book on Beton+Garten Blog. Like you said it was sold out immediately. I tried to contact the publisher but they where really unfriendly about the question for a second edition. …. still searching ….