The Urban Pantheist

Where was I? Oh yeah, tree moss that looks like curly hair:



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Photos by urbpan. Location: Downtown Victoria, British Columbia.

Urban species #222: California poppy Eschscholzia californica

In the Summer, the rains abandon the Pacific northwest and the weeds and grasses turn sere and yellow. Above the wan amber stalks glow golden orange flowers--for the California poppy has been brought to this city to thrive in the summer drought. Native to Southern Washington down to California and the southwest, California poppy enjoys the dry summers of the Puget Sound area and its many other new homes. It has been introduced to places with Mediterranean climates all around the world, including Chile, Australia and South Africa. It can now be found in many eastern states, as well as in southwest Canada. According to the USDA, California poppy can even be found in Massachusetts, though only in Boston's Suffolk County. Only the state of Tennessee lists California poppy as an invasive.

California poppy enjoys full sun, and grows best on grassy hillsides, or treeless lots. Herbivores avoid its bitter-tasting alkaloids, and grazed areas often boast the most poppies. The chemicals in California poppy, though less potent than those of the opium poppy, can be used for analgesic and sedative purposes. In its native range, flying beetles pollenate California poppies, but in most places this function has been replaced by honeybees. Unsurprisingly, this attractive urban wildflower is the state flower of the most populous state, California.
( two from Discovery Park, Seattle )

Photos by urbpan. Location: Underneath railway bridge at the Wishkah River, Aberdeen, Washington.

Most of the weeds we admire, revile, or ignore, depending on our own interests, are plants that bear flowers, and subsequently, seeds. But this lifestyle is a relatively recent development, having evolved only about 140 million years ago. Before that time, plants reproduced by emitting spores. The greatest biodiversity of plants today is among the flowering plants, but some of the spore-producing plants are still with us. Mosses and ferns are familiar, but the horsetails are less well-known.

They are tall and straight plants, knotted stafflike stalks surrounded by whorls of thin raylike branches. They appear primeval to our eyes, and are often depicted in artists depictions of prehistoric landscapes. Before flowering plants evolved into trees, horsetails towered over the heads of the dinosaurs. Today there are only between two and three dozen species (depending on what source is reporting) of these once dominant plants.

The species E. arvense, known as common, or field horsetail, is the most widely distributed and most urban. Like many of its flowering competitors, once it is established in an area it is hard to remove, as it regrows from its rhizomes. Though it is considered a native plant in Europe and the Americas, it is an unwelcome weed in agricultural settings--spoiling cropland and poisoning livestock. In urban environments it tends to grow in waste areas, such as along railyards and industrial sites. It tolerates sandy, acid, and saturated soils, as well as soils dense with clay. Another species, giant horseweed (E. telmateia) can also be urban, growing in drainage ditches and marshy areas.


Location: 19th street, Tacoma, Washington.

So the hotel internet pooped out, probably immediately after I lauded it as the first thing that went right on the vacation. (I'm not complaining!) No really, things are okay. I have a cold--delightfully named disease that I tend to get in the summer--and went far too long without eating, so I shouldn't have been typing. Anyway, I feel better about Seattle in general, now. Everyone seems to be pretty damn friendly and fairly intelligent and clean and in many cases, hip. It's like a cross between San Francisco and Vermont.

We spent much of our tourist time yesterday in the Seattle Center, which is the area immediately around the Space Needle. I couldn't stop thinking about Itchy and Scratchy while I was at the needle itself, especially when I saw the gift shop. It's like a much-reduced version of the CN tower in Toronto, but it's actually pleasant to be in the observation deck (no winter coat required). We used the view to orient ourselves so we could walk around a bit.

Outside we found lots of urban birds in the park. Crows (not sure of the species--probably American crows, but they sounded a little off, and they were on the small side) were common and came quite close to us. They seemed to be filling the starling niche in that part of town (I saw maybe two starlings and probably 60 crows). Large gulls (California Gulls?) were being fed in the park, and we sat and watched interactions between them and the crows, the pigeons and the house sparrows. I saw a white-crowned sparrow, and got a craptastic picture of it. Hopefully I'll see another. Haven't done enough research on the trees yet--some gorgeous Asian-looking spruces, lots of cedar/juniper things, tons of London planetrees, and a whole row of plum trees along the street our hotel is on.

The Seattle Center has a bunch of memorials and fountains. I can't quite put my finger on it--they weren't solemn exactly, but dignified--it felt like they were celebrating humanity, not patriotism--even the 9/11 memorial. It was nice. Not that I'm not patriotic, but I don't think the best response to a national tragedy is to wave an American flag. There was a memorial to the vicitms of a shooting rampage (that I'm embarassed to have forgotten about) that had magic markers attached to it so you could write your feelings on it. Surprisingly, that's what was actually written on it, no "Pearl Jam Rulez" or "You Suck Dead People" or anything like that. Are people here more civilized? Maybe. Unlike Boston there's actually a skate park, and there was someone in it painting a landscape painting of it.

We ate finally at a bar (big surprise) which was fine. I won't go into the size of the fried cheese block that I ate. No, Alexis, I didn't photograph it (I did photograph my artichoke dip) but Rebecca would have loved it.

I'm keeping us in the hotel room longer than we should because the internet is working. Local news (Top story: Police are stopping speeders on Interstate 5!) tells us that today will be the pick of the week. It may get up to 77 degrees. We're going to walk to the waterfront and then drive to the rainforest. Now it's a vacation!