Posts Tagged Upper West Side

Bed Time

November 30, 2019 at 10:58 pm · Filed under Wild Non-Flowering Plants, Wildflowers: Green ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Bed Time . . .

Underfoot: colors as savory as those on a Thanksgiving table.
(NYC 11 2019)

The still damp days of October are long gone, as are the bright autumn leaves illuminating the trees. The deep freeze and stiff winds of November have brought down the golden crowns and where rake or leaf blower hasn’t reached there lies a bed of brown oak and others where a few hardy perennial remnants remain nestled in bloom.

One is the bright green of onion grass:

Genus Allium
(11 29 2019)

Another is the rich brown of the boletus mushroom:

Genus Boletus
(11 29 2019)

The overall palette resembles the colors on a Thanksgiving table. Savory to contemplate before the sun makes an early exit.

Up Above: the brown, white, and blue season has returned.
(11 29 2019)

— rPs 11 30 2019

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Hudson View: “Usher Ulalume”

October 30, 2019 at 12:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Hudson View: “Usher Ulalume” . . .

Mallow, Malvaceae
(NYC 10 2019)

The morning commute made in mist, the grey above and down to the ground drawing all its fire into tree leaves gone gold to red. The lower edges remain green for the last in the return of the damp season switched on following after the dry bluebird skies of August and September.

Dew on the rejuvenated grass sports oak, beech, and elm leaves. The locust trees add a crown of yellow as gold as ripe corn. The gold coins of the ginko are to follow, later, into Thanksgiving.

The scene now on the ground with turf and leaf are fungi. Large mushrooms stand confident in the muted morning light.

Vigorous Fungus
(NYC 10 2019)

October brought to you by the letter M? Add the Mallow, the cheeseplant, Malvaceae, continues to bear its gorgeous pale stripes. Find the flowers nestled beneath the spread of clustered leaves held by long petioles.

City never silent still during some stretches blends into a symphonic whole rather than chaotic scramble. By the fence, in the park, the sound of the hardball hitting the grass, often heard here, ceased after the Yankees bowed out in early October. The same sound now drops when the fruit of the Osage Orange, Maclura pomifera, lands in the grass.

Colloquial: “Monkeyball”
(10 30 2019)

The view beyond, the shallow fjord of the Hudson, presents like a line from “Ulalume” or the grounds of Usher as documented in description by Edgar A. Poe.

Hudson View: Usher Ulalume
(NYC 10 2019)

— rPs 10 30 2019

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Autumnal Apiaceae

September 23, 2019 at 12:24 pm · Filed under Wildflower Related, Wildflowers: White ·Tagged , , , , , ,

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

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High Celsius Cirsium

July 31, 2019 at 5:02 pm · Filed under Wildflowers: Pink, Wildflowers: Purple ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

High Celsius Circium . . .

Thistle: genus Cirsium
(NYC 07 2019

July has baked in an actual sense. Hot days, humid, sun bright and still. New York City heats.

Somewhat in the shadows, ar the base of some shade trees, both native and immigrant thistle species of human stature may be found in vigorus bloom on the green West Side of Manhattan.

High Celcius Circium . . .

— rPs 07 31 2019

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Path and Pond

May 31, 2019 at 8:59 am · Filed under Wildflowers: Red, Wildflowers: Yellow ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Path and Pond . . .

Tulip Tree Flower
(NYC 05 2019)

Spring season stalwarts of the wildflower world are in full bloom throughoit the city as the month of May comes to a close.

Two of the most iconic can be found along two distinct spots: the shaded path and the sunny pond.

The park trail may well be lined by the subtle reds of the bushy wild red columbine, Aquilegia canadensis.

Aquilegia canadensis
(NYC 05 2019)

By the water, the full sun fuels the rich nectar of the wild iris Henry David Thoreau called the yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus.

Iris pseudacorus
(NYC 05 2019)

These are just two of the many wildflowers to be found flowering in the West Village and the rest of Manhattan during these salad days of spring. These living still lifes in situ make a great excuse for a walk in NYC’s park(s).

— rPs 05 31 2019

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Earth Day 49

April 22, 2019 at 10:58 am · Filed under Wildflower Related, Wildflowers: Orange, Wildflowers: Pink ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Earth Day 49 . . .

The author of Philadelphia on the Fly celebrates Earth Day “by the book” . . .
(Planet Earth 04 22 2019)

Earth Day has reached the cusp of a human’s middle age. The planet remains older, larger, and more important than all of us people put together. Let us try, at least try, to be stewards and gardeners and protectors rather than mere users of our one and only green, white, and blue home.

Trout lily and others spring into being.
(04 2019)

Earth Day 2019.

— rPs 04 22 2019

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Happy (9th) Anniversary

March 22, 2019 at 11:03 am · Filed under Wildflower Books, Wildflower Illustrations, Wildflower Related ·Tagged , , , , ,

Happy 9th Anniversary . . .

Lichen Spring
(NYC 03 2019)

March 22 on the calendar marks another year, nine (9!) years, of Wildflowers of the West Village.

Happy Anniversary . . .

The weather today, cold, wet, under a white lid of sky, matches the scene in 2010 when this monthly, sometimes more often adventure in urban botanicals began.

The blog format was a fresh, relevant way to spread one’s written words and images in 2010. Social media had yet to spread its petals in full. Outdoor writing from the perspective of sport had by then through two books established my published, authorial voice, a voice that enjoys harmony.

Wildflowers, such a part of the setting of fishing and birding, have always been in my sight, perceived by scent, and a favorite subject of line drawings. Wildflowers hold a diaspora of fascinations with the added advantage of statis for the visual artist. Fish and birds are difficult to capture. Plants, fixed, quiescent, make much more agreeable sitters for the still life sketch and the photograh.

The impact of one blog, one post to that blog, would be just like a snowflake stuck on a window if not for the incredible archival capability of this online internet format. The weight of nine years, some 165 posts, gives one the feeling some good natural fieldwork has been done. There may even be a book in there!

The year now sees the first snowdrops and croci have appeared along the Hudson. The first dafodils have already been sighted. Bright and dry, or white and damp, the sky and air of Manhattan again the freshest of the year. Again the pastel colors emerge to season the brown, white, and blue palate of the cold leafless months. Again another year of Wildflowers of the West Village.

Sprung!
(NYC 03 2019)

— rPs 03 22 2019

Postscript: Revisit the post that started it all by following this link:
https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/03/22/welcome/

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Ides of March 2019

March 15, 2019 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Wildflower Related, Wildflowers: Green ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ides of March 2019 . . .

Liquidambar styraciflua
(NYC 03 2019)

for New Zealand

Quiet,
Silence.

Riot,
Violence.

Lost cause.
Lost mosques.

Christchurch;
We search.

Gentle
Islands;

We are
Crying.

“Kai su,
Teknon.”

— rPs 03 15 2019

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Lichen the Weather

February 27, 2019 at 11:26 pm · Filed under Wildflowers: Green ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Lichen the Weather . . .

Lichen in Bloom
(NYC 02 24 2019)

Punxsutawney Phil predicted on February 2nd an early spring. He has been correct but for two spells of clear, cold artic gale.

The freeze left behind the windswept spells softens after just a day or two of damp, soft rain warm enough to compell the morning doves to coo.

The air is crisp, damp, clean, and cool enough for the lichen to flower in the West Village. Ground level, too, starts to stir, sprout, and shoot.

Sprouts
(NYC 02 2019)

Shoots
(NYC 02 2019)

Winter Spring: a new subseason?

— rPs 02 27 2019

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There’s Moss

January 31, 2019 at 9:19 pm · Filed under Wildflowers: Green ·Tagged , , , , , ,

There’s Moss . . .

Moss Blooms Green
(NYC 2019)


January can be a month of peaks and valleys in terms of temperature. 2019 has been no exception. One day was damp and in the 50s, a few days later, there was gusting wind and single digits.

The green lining to the warmer days is a brief flowering of the moss, the bright green being the first kind of blooming to be seen in the West Village this new year.

Where There’s Moisture, There’s Moss
(NYC 01 2019)

— rPs 01 31 2019

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