A new guidebook about Berlin’s urban plants

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!).

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The comeback tree: Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven

Photo taken in Mainz, Germany by Jo Spittler

A lively discussion about Ailanthus altissima broke out in response to my last post about Marko finding a plant busting through the pavement. Observant reader Jo Spittler suggested that the  “breakthrough” tree might be an Ailanthus, also known under such poetic names as tree of heaven and ghetto palm. It’s famous for sprouting up in places uninhabitable to most other plants, such as crumbling buildings and paved lots. Indeed, it serves as the central metaphor of the classic book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, as a symbol for flourishing in adverse conditions.

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