STREET PLANT LINK BOX

Street Plant Blogging!

Yikes! It's the 21st. Time for the first Street Plant link box.

Street plant blogging is a treasure hunt. You may find yourself looking in nooks and crannies and cracks and gutters. And sometimes you'll need to be quick - to take pictures of plants growing wild in urban settings before before they're pulled up or killed as if they are weeds.

Plants and trees which grow in places unintended for them (like the tops of roofs and sides of bridges) can be destructive. Even small plants can wreck a pavement. They lever it un-even and exaggerate cracks. So it's not unreasonable when they are removed. Here today. Gone tomorrow. In between - you find them and post!

April 2014

At the same time it's astonishing not just how many there are but how many aren't removed. There's a proper sycamore tree growing in a drain near where I live. It's been there several years. It has a spring and summer and autumn all on its own in a small, square hole beneath the level of the road.

There are plants which come up year after year, their roots getting thicker all the time. There are others which self-seed so you see the same kinds of flowers a year after their parents have been 'weeded' away.

I feel fairly confident when I say you'll be astonished how many urban wild plants you'll see once you start looking.

As with other link boxes on Loose and Leafy, the idea is very informal.

If you have a post about urban wild plants that you'd like others to read - put a link to the post (the specific post, not the blog as a whole) in the box.

The box will stay open for extra entries until the first of October. That's ages! So if you've never thought of posting about urban wild plants before there's plenty of time to have a scout around and join in.

If you'd like to be inspired, take a browse on the Street Plant Bloggers' Page where there are links so you can sample past posts.

And if you put a link in the box, I'll add your name and blog to the list of occasional Street Plant Bloggers on the Street Plant page. (If you'd rather not be included, let me know.)

Ditto, if you plan to write a post about urban wild plants but don't have time to meet the deadline for this box, let me know and I'll add you to the list ready for later.

Street Plant Blogging!

There will be Street Plant link boxes on the following dates:

September 21st - October 1st 2014

And in 2015 (!)

January 21st

April 21st

June 21st

Happy Hunting!

P.S. The plant in the picture was found flowering in front of the newly painted door of a public garage in August 2012. If you'd like to use it as a street plant blogging emblem please feel free to copy and paste it. (There's a smaller version on the Street Plant Bloggers' Page.)

This box will close at 7pm on October 1st (UK time.)

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(#streetplants sometimes means skateboarders!)