NYC Wildflower Week 2017 . . .
Ornithogalum umbellatum
(NYC 05 2017)
The ninth annual NYC Wildflower Week has come to a close with another stretch of days, May 6-14, filled with events and programs related to the wild flora of the New York City region.
Read more about the NYCWW team and related activities on its excellent website. A link can be found to the right listed under the Blogroll.
Capsella bursa-pastoris
(NYC 05 2017)
— rPs 05 16 2017
Media Encounter . . .
Say “Chickweed.”
(Stellaria media, NYC, 02 2017)
Bright white drops like elongated undyed eggs of Easter. The first Galanthus nivalis were sighted in an otherwise fallow Manhattan flowerbed on Sunday, February 19. Blooms succulent and upright enough; they must have appeared several days earlier. Someone may need to go out more.
Out there, the sky a mix of overcast patched with blue, the grounds have remained cool and damp since the last freeze’s thaw. There is, on the level, vibrant green to be seen wild, growing.
The excitement for me this time out stems from my encounter with the media, pun intended. Happy sight it is to see the immigrant Stellaria media chickweed spreading about in loose communities at the base of planted pines. The tannic, more acidic soil of the evergreen does not seem to be minded by Stellaria of the West Village.
Pine Base Stellaria
(NYC, 02 2017)
Spring a month in advance, already, looks into the camera:
Say “Chickweed.”
— rPs 02 24 2017
Autumn Whites . . .
White Aster & Snakeroot
(Manhattan, NYC, 11 2016)
Russet variation of deciduous oaks and maples see their feet dressed in filigree of wildflower white as sparse as lace, or as morning frost on lawn, or the first accumulated dusting of flurries.
“Friends appear like snowflakes clung to a window. … ”
Lines of poems shaped like prose recited aloud in the out of doors can be a symptom, if one allows it, of mind, perhaps your own, ruminating, meeting, encountering such attractive intersections of nature and the city.
Here it remains, on the west side of Manhattan, where civil island meets tidal river at a time when sun sets are fast and temperatures bring a shiver.
The cold months are hinted on the rippled gray sky, felt on the wind, not far.
– rPs 11 21 2016
Postscript: Thanksgiving is on the menu. Centerpiece: Wildflower White (Asteraceae, various)
Ten Days in August . . .
Ganoderma
(NYC 08 19 2016)
Time enough makes enough time past for the passing eye to perceive a growth surge in a fresh Ganoderma attached to a tree on a Manhattan side street.
The bracket fungi generate and expresses a repeated series of shelves ascending or descending . Rippled by the environment, these waves of growth are beautifully expressed. The sharp color contrast of the edge to the body clearly communicates an understanding of balance. Each one may be likened to the ring on a tree. The cycle appears more frequently than a year and may mark dry and wet periods of slow or vigorous growth.
Ganoderma
(NYC 08 29 2016
This time marks the middle age of summer. Green has gone to the tired end of the spectrum as if some gray had been added from age, dust, a face exposed to the city. The bright and dry days of summer’s middle age give clearance at the end of a serious wave of high humidity in increased heat.
Clear air gives the spread of an individual Marestail grace to remain green from the available water. Individual Conyza canadensis hold beauty upright in tall symmetry dressed in green stalks and a filigree of white.
A clear face as the milk white Convolvulaceae. Bindweed sits bright before leaves sharp as a lancet, another allusion to Ages Middle like time Yore and ways Olde.
– rPs 08 30 2016
Postscript: More on Marestail: https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/11/09/the-mares-tail/
and Bindweed: https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/10/08/blooms-that-bind/
American for French . . .
A NYC daily newspaper headline stated the fact:AGAIN. Here today this American’s Red, White, and Blue supports the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.
BLEU (Chichorium intybus 07 2016)
WHITE (Catalpa speciosa NYC 07 2016)
ROUGE (Rhus glabra 07 2016)
— rPs 07 15 2016
Summer Blooms . . .
Broadleaf Plantain, Plantago major (NYC 06 2016)
Bloomsday passed with a literary flourish on June 16 and now, just a few days later, Summer is here in New York City, or rather as of 6:34 p.m. Eastern Standard Time today, June 20.
Rain or shine, this is the peak time for the Wildflowers of the West Village. Multiple species, in some cases multiples varieties of the same genus, such as the plantains (Plantago) can be found edging lawns and other green spaces throughout the Five Boroughs.
Have a great summer season.
English Plantain, Plantago lanceolata (NYC 06 2016)
– rPs 06 20 2016
May Showers, May Flowers . . .
A Well-Untended West Side Berm (NYC 05 2016)
The annual NYC Wildflower Week filled the Five Boroughs with wild plant awareness, again celebrating native New York City flora, between May 8 and 15 this year.
Further exploration of the green spaces at the speed of exercise accompanied several days of dark sky and sprinkled rain. The cool water and ameliorated sunlight has invigorated everything that grows green in New York City. What follows has emerged as days bright and clear, brisk, borne on steady breeze. The dappled shade of the Sweetgum, Black Oak, London Plane, or Ginkgo reveals many native and immigrant inhabitants in flush growth.
Burdock, (Arctium lappa)
Garlic Mustard, (Alliaria petiolatra)
Grass Lily (Ornithogalum umbellatum)
Shepherd’s Purse, (Capsella bursa-pastoris) 
One can encounter at ease many such plants sprouted to the size of a shrub. That advertises healthy vigor, acceptable conditions, and lenient grounds-keeping.
NYC Wildflower Week, and beyond; Wildflowers of the West Village, and beyond: here, along the trailed, trailing green edge of Manhattan. Proof may be witnessed on any average, well-untended New York City berm.
– rPs 05 18 2016
Postscript: The website of the NYC Wildflower Week may be browsed any time of year with a click of the link available to the right under the Blogroll.
Anniversary Spring . . .
Trio of Leaves: Symplocarpus
(NYC, 03 2016)
Six (6!) years ago the concept of “Wildflowers of the West Village” conceived in liberty an ongoing mission to serve History. The best is, as the rest, and seeks out to answer what untended wild exists on the western edge of Manhattan during the early twenty-first century.
Report as a journalist: craft, ethics, objectivity. Write as a poet within the standard prose traditions of Natural History. The fact the flora explorations offer exercise at whatever fitness level one desires has extended and sustained a silver lining to my distance running life for two score plus of years.
Spring Equinox 2016 gusted in near 12:30 a.m. EST with preparations readied for a citywide snow storm that arrived only as brief periods of spritzing sleet. The predominant weather pattern has remained bluebird skies, sun bright, almost white, the atmosphere blowing on strong sustained winds.
Some outings may be more of a hike than a run. Sometimes both are combined for various effects. Spring time gives the city good air before the pollen count commences, great times to be out of doors.
Full sun bathed one such exertion combo around the leafy stretches of NYC’s parks. Marshy areas call for lighter stepping. I attempt to not even leave footprints. A drier winter has left marsh in place under a dry intact leaf carpet in most areas. One spot of perhaps an acre did stand out as wet as expected. Brush nested in oak leaves, which received sun later in the afternoon. Within that section there rested a spot near a tannic puddle bottomed in saturated oak leaves. Nearby stood distinctive green candle flame spires rooted in a patterned purple almost ceramic in appearance; there the new green shoots of the soon to be enormous Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus.
Sighted often on spring hikes, near the water waded in search of trout, some enormous verdant “verde” ears may be seen by early April. Fly fishers may take note stoneflies and bees are attracted to the plant, inedible and indelicate of odor to most humans. The health and vigor and native green this species gives to one’s eyes a fresh bloom to the picture; a kind of green quotation to the predominant three brown, white, and blue.
Skunk Cabbage could just as easily be called Woodpecker Cabbage, or Trout Cabbage, given its time of emergence and the other active living species gathered and about around the days surrounding the Spring Equinox.
“Phenology.”
Symplocarpus may be NYC’s first native thumb up for another growing season, perhaps like a first tuba in spring’s unfolding symphony of green. Skunk Cabbage takes its place with all the other wildflowers of the West Village, and beyond.
Happy 6th Anniversary, Wildflowers of the West Village. Spring, 2016.
Six Spires Green Beside the Path: Symplocarpus
(NYC, 03 2016)
– rPs 03 21 2016
Veterans . . .
Butter & Eggs after rain on Veterans Day, 2015.
Wildflowers, those exposed to so much stress in urban environments, may be presumed to have wrapped up blooming activity by November. Not so along the western edge of Manhattan. Cool wet days under breezy white sky have in succession invigorated lawns and edges alike on the island of Manhattan. The lush green beds support a casserole of multicolored leaves.
The gold of the Ginkgo and Weeping Willow complement the burnt orange of the Sugar Maple, the evergreen and yellow variations of the Norway Maple. The flutter of the individual Black Locust, tiny in comparison to that of the London Plane Tree and Black Oak, dry leaves when stiff the size of a desert plate.
My favorites of the blooming foliage include the fiery tones of the American Sumac, the intricate stylish spades of the living fossil, the Tulip Tree, and the full spectrum splendor of the Liquid Amber, the Sweetgum.
Standing, blooming in their way on the trunks of such trees, one can find lichen in full vigor:
Mushrooms like the Amanita reside in the leaf litter:
Wildflowers, the second wind of sorts, numerous veterans, though perhaps plain or small or scattered, bloom now in great variety and number. Goldenrod, Galinsoga, Lady’s Thumb, and the Dandelion all still flower here and there. Others encountered during a run in the park may include:
Chicory, Chicorium intybus
Mallow, Marva parviflora
Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris
Nightshade, Solanum
Peppergrass, Lepidium
White Snakeroot, Agaratina altissima
November Rain, a fine song title, and a pillar source of life for a strong stand of West Village wildflower veterans.
– rPs 11 11 2015
Summer, Solanum . . .
Solanum nigrum,
Manhattan.
(08 2015)
New York City wakes to the light of August and the news of fifty days and counting when temperatures have held at 80 degree Fahrenheit or more.
Humidity feeds the air and makes the air felt. The act of breathing becomes an even damper labor requiring calories if on a run to survey wildflowers along Manhattan’s banks of the Hudson River.
Inland, the islands holds tree pits colonized like a kind of microcosm of monoculture. Within squares sprout Galinsoga, Lady’s Thumb, Yellow Sow Thistle, and Marestail.
Marestail,
Conyza canadensis,
Manhattan.
(08 2015)
Not so much the Asiatic Dayflower. Commelina cummunis, which appreciates seasons of high water and a more modest light.
Asiatic Dayflower does not take to prolonged direct sun exposure.
(08 2015)
This season being dry, and hot, one of the most common sights are of tiny black tomatoes hanging in sparse clumps from vigorous stems and ovate green leaves supporting also tiny flowers that resemble sunnyside eggs shaped into five petals arranged as a star.
Solanum nigrum, the Nightshade. August in the Nightshade, or . . .
. . . a Summer, Solanum, with some others remains the steady news of the day.
– rPs 08 26 2015
Wildflowers of the West Village 