The Urban Pantheist

A few weeks ago hop clover was featured here as 100 species #53. It was secretly a quite tentative identification, but this developing fruit at least eliminates black medic as a competing rule out.


This goose was swimming in Mother Brook with a group of Canada geese, and at least one other similar goose. If you look closely, the shape of the bill is more like that of a graylag goose than of a Canada, and there is a ring of light colored feathers around the bill. Also the color of the feet is rather lighter than those of a typical Canada goose. I suspect that this is a hybrid Branta x Anser, between Canada and domestic geese.


This mushroom popped up in our compost container. It looks like it's in the Coprinus lagopus group.

Photo by cottonmanifesto. Location: Castle Island, Boston.

Urban species #254: Red clover Trifolium pratense


"What is a weed?  A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows." Doug Larson

"A weed is no more than a flower in disguise."
James Russell Lowell

"Man is by definition the first and primary weed under whose influence all other weeds have evolved." Jack R. Harland.

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." Eeyore

Obviously James Russell Lowell was strongly influenced by other great thinkers, such as Eeyore. You will know a weed when it flowers on a heap of discarded soil on a December day, in a major northern city, on a sidewalk, ten feet from the ocean. Red clover is a weed because it can do this, in the farfetched hope that some pollinator will not only visit, but carry its pollen to another hopeful red clover elsewhere. Weeds take advantage of opportunities--as Harland states above, these are always man-made opportunities. Such opportunities include disturbing the soil, so that more sensitive plants can not establish themselves, or removing the surrounding vegetation so that only those weeds that like strong sunlight can survive. Red clover has the added advantage of being useful to humans. Because it is a member of the legume family, it traps nitrogen and makes the soil it grows in better for crops. It provides good food for honeybees, and decent forage for livestock. It has been used for a variety of medicinal uses, and red clover sprouts are grown as vitamin and protein rich health food. It is the national flower of the densely populated country of Denmark, and the sparsely populated state of Vermont, which indicates its esteem and range of habitat. It grows taller than white clover, so it tends to appear in waste areas, while white clover can grow in a mowed area, becoming part of the turf. Red clover is undeniably a weed.

Photo by urbpan. A planted row of honey locusts along a parking lot in the Fenway.

Urban species #271: Honey locust Gleditsia triacanthos
See also black locust

If you closed your eyes in Boston, and touched the first tree you found, the chances are very good that you would touch a honey locust. Fortunately, honey locusts chosen for urban plantings have been cultivated so that they lack the huge sharp thorns that their wild equivalents have, so you could touch it safely. Honey locusts are one of the the top five or six tree species planted in Boston. In Manhattan and Chicago, honey locust is number one.

When, in the Appalachians, land was cleared of trees and scarred with mines, the first wild tree to regrow in the area was honey locust. Its ability to grow quickly in damaged areas suggested that it would be a good choice for the city. Indeed, it's a pioneer plant that tolerates a wide range of disturbed soil qualities, including typical urban soils--compacted by traffic, depleted of nutrients, tainted by pollutants.
Honey locust's foliage is a selling point as well. The leaves are composed of dozens of very small leaflets, which filter sunlight to create a dappled shade. And when the leaves fall in autumn, the leaflets tend to blow away in the wind, rather than accumulate into heavy litter.

But sometimes some litter piles up around the tree anyway. Honey locust is a legume, and its seeds are borne in large shiny brown pods. Often city dwellers will encounter these pods on the sidewalk, not understanding where they came from. Unless there are still some clinging to the small spindly tree's branches, it's hard to associate the fruits with the tree. Each pod has several seeds inside, and when the fruit is mature, the seeds rattle loosely when it's shaken, like a flattened maraca. When the fruit is still green, the seeds are held in a sweet gummy sap, giving the tree its name. There are cultivated varieties of honey locust, engineered for tidy landscapers, that produce no seeds at all.


A honey locust pod changing from green to brown as it matures.

( Read more... )

Photo by cottonmanifesto. Location: Willams Street (between Washington Street and Franklin Park), Jamaica Plain.

Urban species #170: Vetch Vicia sp.

Vetch is a climbing legume whose terminal tendrils bear sprays of lovely blue-violet flowers. It is grown as a "green manure" in Europe, enriching the soil as all legumes do, in places where clover will not take. Considering the ubiquity of clover, this says a lot about the hardiness of vetch. They are considered the best soil-enriching crop for acid soils.

Several species of vetch were introduced to North America for this purpose, and they are considered invasive in some states. Vetch seeds are sometimes used for livestock fodder, but are toxic to humans. Fava beans come from a vetch (Vicia faba), and people who have a certain genetic condition can be struck with "favism" from eating them, and can get sick from inhaling vetch pollen.

Vetches are encountered in the city crawling atop hedges and shrubs along fence lines. They are favorite flowers for honeybees to visit, and agriculturalists will use bees and vetches together to increase productivity of both species.

Location: Alley behind apartments near Ringer Playground, Allston.

When I first started to be actively concious of urban nature, I lived near Ringer Playground in Allston. Crossing through this wooded park on my way to work one day, I noticed the air was filled with a sweet smell, like jasmine. The tall trees along the path were heavy with pendulous bunches of white flowers which were emitting the delightful fragrance, so different from the usual scents of the densely populated neighborhood.

Black locust trees bloom impressively but briefly, the fragrance meant to attract the attention of bees. They are native to the Appalachians, but are now found in every contiguous state in the U.S. and have also been introduced to Europe. They are far outnumbered in most cities by their relative honey locust, which has similar foliage made of tiny leaflets. Both trees come in thorny and non-thorny varieties. Black locust grows quickly, and readily reproduces itself through root suckers(whole new trees growing from the root of the parent tree). Stands of such black locust trees spread into cleared areas, and prevent other forms of vegetation from flourishing. It is considered invasive, and is even on the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List. As of January first of this year, "the sale, trade, purchase, and distribution" of black locust is prohibited.

( Two details, from Ringer Playground )