Victorville, CA: Tumbling like a tumbling tumbleweed

High winds are prevailing in southern California and the Central Coast, reports my mother in her first, eyewitness contribution to Urban Plant Research. In Santa Barbara County, she can hardly venture outside because of winds over 25 miles per hour. She also read that over in Victorville, which lies between Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, the wind has residents trapped inside for another reason: it has swept mountains of tumbleweeds against their houses, blocking doors and windows! Check out these Google Image search results she sent over:

We here at Urban Plant Research have long been interested in tumbleweeds and urban tumbleweeds (tumbling, windblown plastic bags). Are their tumbleweeds where you live?

Read Full Post »

Denver plants don’t mind the gaps

Hollyhocks and few other plants are thriving in the tiny gap between the buildings and sidewalks of Denver (though a few look like they’ve been pruned).

Min Li Chan of San Francisco send this photo-report from her travels to the RiNo arts district, which she described as “an industrial area turned hipster art neighborhood, not unlike Williamsburg five years ago.” Perhaps we should compare Brooklyn plants to Denver plants?

Thank you to Min Li for stopping to observe some urban plants and share them with us!

Read Full Post »

Lyon, France: Flower power, or, bouquet tree

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

Berlin: Dandelions between rocks and mint green stripes

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

 

Read Full Post »

‘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…

Read Full Post »

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…

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »