Lily Pad Lifestyle
Floating along without a care in the world. Such effortless beauty. No wonder Monet couldn’t stop painting them. At the New York Botanical Garden, my favorite place is the the water lily pool. Its giant surface is covered with lily pads and fringed by tall lotus blossoms with leaves the size of bicycle tires. Reflections of the sky and the white conservatory buildings mingle with the lilies and the lotuses–it’s sort of a cross between between Paris and the Nile. The thing about a shallow, still pool like this is that you can’t see all the way to the bottom. Water lilies,...
Read MoreRed Cage Fungus: Smelly Beauty
Pulling weeds. A very educational pursuit. I learn something new every time I do it. I was pulling some invasive bittersweet out of a pile of woodchips at the Pine Hollow Arboretum, when I noticed a hint of a sort of bad smell. Decomposing dead animal? Turned around to look, and the smell grew stronger. No sign of any corpses, though. Hm. Odor getting stronger the more I walk around. Did I step in something unfortunate? Check shoes. No. What is that smell? I search around, and finally notice what’s been under my feet all along–the tiny, fragile, odoriferous beauty of a stinkhorn...
Read MoreMorning Glory: The Vine Lifestyle
There’s something shady about vines. Look at the names we give them—creepers, stranglers, parasites. I guess, in our puritan work ethic, there’s something morally dubious about a plant that can’t stand on its own two feet, so to speak. Why can’t vines get out and support themselves and not go draping themselves all over things? To call someone a “clinging vine” is to imply weakness. But actually vines are among the most powerful and successful plants on the planet. They succeed in ways more upright, self-supporting types can’t. Vines can exploit habitats that no other type of plant could...
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All Roads Lead to Dandelions
No matter where you go, it seems there’s a dandelion at your feet–or under your feet. This is a cobbled pathway in Central Park, New York City. The dandelions don’t content themselves with growing on the lawn, they invade the sidewalk, too. The flower and leaves manage to survive in the spaces between the stones. Just a few small crumpled leaves. Getting walked on all the time. How on earth can they do it? The secret of their success is in the root. Dandelions are perennials, coming up year after year, for five years or even more. So the root has time to get big. Even if...
Read MoreTulips: Old Masters
This is the most bustling, enticing, delicious farmer’s market I’ve ever been to. Local spring greens, potatoes, herbs, leeks. Muffins, honey, goat cheese, maple syrup. And flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers. The famous Greenmarket in Union Square. Funny, I had to go to New York City to find flowers blooming. It was a refined form of torture for me to have to walk past dozens of stalls selling plants of every description, and not be able to buy any. But the daffodils and the pansies wouldn’t survive being stuffed in a backpack and carted around the city. And it’s not...
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