Solstice Survivor . . .
The winter solstice is here and now. Though the available natural light is at its least, there remain a few scattered wildflower survivors lingering here and there due to the milder temperatures of recent weeks.
Winter is here. But reason to stay positive during this yule time: the sun’s next big astonomical stop is the spring equinox.
— rPs 12 21 2021
Sunny or cloudy, dry or damp: extremes of one or the other usually mark the last weeks of the summer season. The key variable is whether or not the given hurricane season is an active one, or not.
The passing presence of Henri and now Ida has brought an impressive amount of water to the New York region this August. The flora blooming most vigorously in response have been those types that drink it up.
One variety seen in abundance now is not a flowering in the specific sense at all, but a fruiting. The fungi known as the ringless honey mushroom, Armillaria tabescens, appears in large clusters wherever lawn and wood meet. The base of trees is one such spot.
A species of true wildflower that thrives in the wet weather of August is the orange jewelweed, Impatiens capensis. A plant of stream sides and pond borders; it’s bright, speckled blooms, each suspended on a fine succulent stem, resemble a trumpet.
This flower is a touch-me-not. Agile bumblebees and hummingbirds love its nectar, but in rougher hands, like those of a human, even a light brush will cause the plant’s seed pods to burst, a type of dispersal known as explosive dehiscence.
August days may be muggy, but such interesting plants are worth some outdoor time spent on a wildflower walk.
— rPs 08 31 2021
The wild morning glory, hedge bindweed, is often beset by NYC park workers and volunteers who rip it out with relish in order to reveal an empty trash-strewn edge where once a living green wildflower fence had been. No matter, though, as bindweed is hardy and tenacious and its lively, arrow-shaped leaves and clean white blooms return quickly to prominence.
Nature always wins.
— rPs 07 31 2021
The Summer Solstice has brought the heat we associate with the heart of summer. Soaking up this bright sun are two of the seasons most vertical standouts:
Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)
Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
Summer’s here, and the wildflowers are impossible to miss.
— rPs 06 30 2021
This spring’s weather has been very amenable to the often elusive and shy mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, which has appeared to be quite prolific in New York City’s shaded green spaces this year:
— rPs 05 31 2021
Earth Day 2021 in New York City could be called “Brrrth Day” as it began with Fahrenheit temperatures in the 30s.
Sun in a sky dotted by bright clouds has added little warmth on account of high winds, but the light, so spring clear and pure as to sharpen and magnify everything, shines on the new green leafing out as well as a full spectrum of spring flowers both domesticated and wild.
Happy Earth Day 2021
— rPs 04 22 2021
“Wildflowers of the West Village will be an ongoing document, beginning with the 2010 growing season” . . .
So began Wildflowers of the West Village on this date in 2010. Last year’s 10th anniversary was overshadowed by New York (and the rest of the world) locking down at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, that crisis still remains, but the outlook is much more positive, and today is a bright and sunny day in the city, the first full day of spring, full of new wildflower beauty that cannot be contained.
A short Sunday morning walk in the neighborhood reveals:
Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta
Groundsel, Senecio vulgaris
Mouseear chickweed, Cerastium fontanum
Red deadnettle, Lamium purpureum
The diversity of species and range of shape and color punctuating the newly greening grass is affirming to behold, just one of the reasons a little blog about wildflowers in of all places, New York City, has lasted for over a decade, but who’s counting?
— rPs 03 22 2021
Postscript: Visit the post that started it all here: https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/03/22/welcome/
Snow melts to reveal lawns like tundra, spongy cold underfoot, and full of hardy basal rosettes, flat green faces waiting for spring when once again wild plants may rise to stand up straight.
Meanwhile, as soon as some sunshine sustains on the earth, there are poking through the cracks the early bloomers like the red deadnettle, Lamium:
Spring’s start is less than a month away. The wildflowers of the West Village are getting ready.
— rPs 02 28 2021
The asters of autumn have long gone to seed. The parks sport the brown and tan tones of skeletal plant stems, dried leaves, and fallow edges now, within winter’s center, dressed also in white from a January snow.
— rPs 01 31 2021
The year 2020 comes to a close. One thinks, in hindsight, this was one best skipped, until one pauses and realizes life, all life, including blooming plants, has continued as usual. Our human lives in civilization shall, too, and may even return to some kind of normal, maybe even this next new year.
Farewell, 2020 . . . Here’s to 2021!
— rPs 12 31 2020
Wildflowers of the West Village 