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
“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/
First Signs of Fall . . .
White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima, has honeybee company.
(NYC 09 2020)
There is a distinct chill in the air as the monochromatic green has begun to be edged with more ocherous colors.
Crisp air. Fall leaves.
The Autumnal Equinox occurred in New York City today at 9:30 a.m. EST.
Some of the first signs of fall are already in bloom. The rich color of jewelweed can be found around shaded areas near the water just as white snakeroot, one of the hardiest, most ubiquitous of the season’s wildflowers, lines park paths and other green edges of the city.
Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis, holds all the colors of autumn in a single bloom.
(NYC 09 22 2020)
Happy first day of fall.
— rPs 09 22 2020
August Harvest . . .
A summer salad of Asiatic dayflower, Galinsoga, and Lady’s Thumb.
(NYC 08 31 2020)
Family and friends have begun to share photos, and salads, from their gardens as the month of August comes to a close. The wild patches of Manhattan’s west side have also reached their peak of productivity.
A morning walk, or a stroll to watch the evening sun set behind the Hudson, will also be accompanied by a diverse harvest of native and immigrant wildflowers in full bloom and fruit. This salad bar of sorts includes:
American Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana
(NYC 08 17 2020)
Bittersweet Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara
(NYC 08 31 2020)
Broadleaf Plantain, Plantago major
(NYC 08 31 2020)
Butter and Eggs, Linaria vulgaris
(08 08 2020)
Chicory, Cichorium intybus
(NYC 08 2020)
Common Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum
(NYC 08 17 2020)
Common Mallow, Malva neglecta
(NYC 08 17 2020)
Galinsoga, Galinsoga parviflora
(NYC 08 17 2020)
Lady’s Thumb, Persicaria maculosa
(NYC 08 17 2020)
Marestail, Conyza canadensis
(NYC 08 31 2020)
There is quite a selection to see. August’s harvest is here.
— rPs 08 31 2020
Bloomsday 2020 . . .
White Clover, Trifolium repens
(NYC 06 2020)
Bloomsday, the novel 24 hours by James Joyce celebrated on this day, may have to be a virtual communal experience this year. No grand public readings, straw hats, bowties, or summer dresses celebrated under a bright blue and white sky.
One may still go out in the fine weather to the park to smell the clover, perhaps the most Irish of wildflowers. Spend some time there, distanced safely on a park bench, or on a blanket spread on the ground, book in hand held by the odyssey of Leopold Bloom.
Pink Clover, Trifolium pratense
(NYC 06 2020)
Happy Bloomsday, 2020.
(NYC 06 16 2020)
— rPs 06 16 2020
Postscript: You can read WWV’s original Joycean odyssey here:
https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/06/16/bloomsday/
May Flowers of Manhattan . . .
Yellow Flag
(NYC 05 2020)
City wildflowers have never lifted my spirits more than during this month of May. Morning walks home from my essential worksite have cleansed my mind, filled my lungs with fresh air, and filled my eyes with life worth living. Views in bloom I hope will be the main lasting memory I keep of this chequered pandemic time.
Here are a few thousand words worth of photos to convey the magnificence of this May in Manhattan:
Wild Columbine
Wild Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis
(NYC 05 2020)
Shepherd’s Purse
Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris
(NYC 05 2020)
English Plantain
English Plantain, Plantago lanceolata
(NYC 05 31 2020)
And last, and perhaps most iconic: the always cheerful Common Dandelion
Common Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale
(NYC 05 31 2020)
All the above and more can be seen now during a walk through the city’s many green spaces. Grab a mask, and go . . .
The Green Path
(NYC 05 2020)
— rPs 05 31 2020
Mild Winter Early Birds . . .
Forsythia in February!
(NYC 02 12 2020)
You can tell a winter season is a mild one when the mourning dove wakes you with its morning call as early as the middle of February.
Rain rather than snow with plenty of sun in between has brought early flowering greens along with the songbirds. Leap year adds an additional day to the second month of the year, and what’s become clear is this one has been warmer just as Punxsutawney Phil predicted. A brief walk in the park or down a garden block encounters:
Bittercress
Cardamine hirsuta
(02 28 2020)
Chickweed
Stellara media
(NYC 02 23 2020)
Grounsel
Senecio vulgaris
(02 28 2020)
Birds and blooms already in February may forshadow a healthy 2020 growing season for New York City, and a hot one, too.
— rPs 02 29 2020
Reason for Hope . . .
First Snopdrop Sighting:
Galanthus nivalis
(NYC 01 31 2020)
January is either a damp cold colored brown, white, and gray during a walk outside, or the sky above is a transluscent blue lens magnifying sun and wind into a bright frigid bluster.
Life greets first losses of the year especially hard. Hard to lose a personal hero, Neil Peart, who was quite clear and correct in the title track from the Rush LP Presto: “I radiate more heat than light.”
Peart was an avid cyclist and birder in between life as a recording artist and author. He inspired (the “heat” to create). Role models as such it follows I am an avid cyclist and documentarian of urban flora, indiginous and immigrant, in between life as an author.
Sad, too, to lose one who makes us laugh (Monty Python’s Terry Jones) and who’s sheer elevation of life lifts us (NBA and Oscar winner, Kobe Bryant).
Saying goodbye, letting go, tasks in life always never easy. The reason for hope in all that can be found; it emerges like a snowdrop from the remnants of last year’s leaf fall. The first flower of the year near month’s end is like a lawn bathed in January sun. Bright and alive, the thaw, temporary perhaps, but a reminder new life follows from the former; everything continues.
Winter Season Variety:
Groundsel, Senecio vulgaris, and others.
(01 2020)
Autumnal Apiaceae . . .
Queen Anne’s Lace: Family Apiaceae
(NYC 09 2019)
Fall arrives late this year, the 23rd of September, on a sunny day as hot as July.
Although it doesn’t quite feel like it, day and night are in balance. Tomorrow begins the speedy transition to shorter days and fall season temperatures.
Meanwhile, the plant world remains green, for now, and the late season palate of white predominates among those still in bloom. The most visible examples are the broad umbels of the wild carrot, Queen Anne’s Lace, Daucus carota.
Living bouquet can be found in bloom throughout the NYC area along fences, beside lamp posts, and even sprouting from the spaces between the stone walls lining the Hudson River.
Lamp Post Bouquet
(NYC 09 2019)
— rPs 09 23 2019
Through the Fence . . .
Asiatic Dayflower:
Commelina communis
(NYC 08 26 2019)
Property shaped by fences is a reality in the developed and redeveloping city. A fence, though, not be just used to keep some thing or some one out. A fence can aso keep things contained in a sustained, unmolested zone of wild flowering green.
Bittersweet Nightshade:
Solanum dulcamara
(NYC 08 27 2019)
A blooming even so in August, the late last of the growing season, when the sun still hangs high over the region’s annual dry season.
Canada Thistle:
Cirsium arvense
(NYC 08 27 2019)
Sun, followed by a late afternoon shower that keeps the city parks in formal, and informal, flower.
Phytolacca americana
(NYC 08 28 2019)
This time of year it is pleasant to peek through the fence if on the other side there are wildflowers.
— rPs 08 28 2019
Wildflowers of the West Village 