STREET PLANTS IN JUNE

Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)

There's a street I know where nothing ever changes. Of course, it must change. Indeed, I know it does because I went looking for prickly lettuce against a wall and it wasn't there.

But somehow the seasons get left behind. There's very little rubbish but there are always autumn leaves. How can there be leaves when other things are swept away?

Small Petty Spurge (Euphorbia peplus)

It makes it a pleasant place to walk. The houses are strong and practical but not necessarily beautiful. There are pensioners' bungalows along one side; council houses on the other. Close by there's a well-kept green with a post-box. Around the corner there are lock-up garages.

This is the street where the horse chestnut grows that went with the list of Tree Following posts for June. It's a plain and ordinary residential street - where leaves always stay in the kerb. Some must be taken away or the place would have silted up long ago and no-one would be able to pass in and out through their garden gates.

And for whatever the reason, it's a sure fire place for street plants. Maybe they are protected by the leaves? But it seems more the other way round. The leaves are caught among the stems of the plants which grow there in profusion and variety.

It's not as if there's something special about this street compared with the ones around. There are more pensioner's bungalows than in others but why would that make leaves stay? And it's not that older people are less likely to have cars to squash plants in the kerb. There are cars. What's more, some other streets have fewer because the houses there are provided with their own parking places.

Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

I can't fathom it. But what I do know is that I could have filled post after post after post with plants which grow in this one, ordinary, residential street where the wind and sweepers leave eaves and the elements provide the best place possible for an abundance of plants in the kerbs.

* * *

You know the tree in a drain we visit from time to time? It's thriving still. This year it's filled the hole beneath the grid with leaves. Here's a new sprouting.

Sycamore tree with new, scrumpled leaves

Are there plants in the streets where you live? Or where you travel around? 

Do join us by putting your post in the Loose and Leafy Urban Wild Plant link box which will open tomorrow (21st June) and close June till 7pm on the 25th.

For more info. go to the Street Plant Bloggers Page.

Do you know the Nature Gate site? 

I really do recommend it. It's elegant and informative. It's based in Finland but many of the plants and creatures on it can be found in other countries too.

Here are it's entries for plants in this post.

Black Medick

Shepherd's Purse

Petty Spurge 

Tweet

THE WILD PLANTS OF SOUTHAMPTON HIGH STREET

At the top of a pedestrian subway in Southampton (but not in the High Street).

This little garden has a lawn and leaves and flowers.

If I have a mission, it's to persuade people that every street is a garden. Not has a garden, note; but is one.

My theory is that in every street there are flowers and lawns and trees and . . . it's just a matter of adjusting your sense of scale and looking for them.

Those of you who have been reading Loose and Leafy over the years will be familiar with my posts about street plants. Until now I've gone to towns I already know so I've had good ideas about where to look.

For the free-range gardener,
trees put there by the council don't count.

On Wednesday I was in Southampton. I've been there in the past but not much. I once went to an art exhibition. I accompanied a friend to a shop where they sell exceptionally smelly soaps. I've visited a road which used to be a wharf but is now a long way from water. That's about it.

The main shopping street in Southampton is broad and for half its length traffic free. At one end there's a lumpy entrance you can walk through or round - The Bargate. (Built around 1180). At the other - where the traffic is - a park. In between are the usual City Centre shops, all built since the Second World War. (Southampton was bombed.) Some have doors opening directly onto the street. Others are in arcades. Some of the architecture is very grand and modern. Some is dated and beginning to decay. There were market stalls the day I was there. And a roundabout.

A little urban lawn.
There was a slightly larger patch of grass by a group of benches
but I would have felt awkward asking people to move their feet so I could take its picture.

Time to put my theory to the test. This is a very busy street. Is it also a garden? It didn't look promising. But there's no point in having a theory unless you put it to the test.

Shopping centres where rubbish is collected and pavements forever swept clean can be arid and dull. From that perspective, Southampton High Street definitely looked dull - dull and dry and lacking in green.

When you can;t see much by looking down - look up.
See the tree? One in an arboretum.
Although it looks alone there are bound to be others in streets nearby.
Birds would know.
Indeed I found a big, flowering buddleia down a left-hand turn. Ferns by a down-pipe too.

It was. I struggled to find anything. There is, I realise, little to show. Indeed, at one point I was wondering whether I should conceal the fact that I'd tried or accept I'd failed and admit it; that my theory had bitten the dust.

Smooth sow-thistle (?) by a bus-stop.
(Sonchus olderaceus)

But no! There was a small lawn, a flowerbed and a tree.

Hurray! Southampton High street is - as you see - a garden.

What's more, there were wild animals. Aphids. Ladybirds!

This Harlequin Ladybird  (Harmonia axiridis )
was on the Smooth Sow-Thistle
above.
See greenfly legs sticking out from its mouth?

To a flock of aphids a Harlequin Ladybird is more dangerous than a lion is to a herd of gazelle. It will chomp and keep chomping.

My theory holds. We're short of rain. It's rather hot. Once the pavement is watered and the gutters have been washed through with rain . . . maybe it'll become a 'Botanic' one. Perhaps it'll go in a yellow book!

* * *

The current population of Southampton is around 237,000.

Southampton is in Hampshire in the South of England.

If you live in the UK you can take part in the Ladybird Survey

which has a picture gallery of kinds of ladybirds to look out for on its site.

There's a downloadable Ladybird Identification Guide on their site too.

Here's a link to find out about The Ladybirds of Ireland.

* * *
More Street Plant Posts on Loose and Leafy

Tweet

Do You Post About Street Plants?

Here's a post on Hollis' blog - In the Company of Rocks and Plants
 - Urban Botany, Urban Art and the Instagram Effect
And from Amanda at 'The Quiet Walker'
 - Urban Plants at the Town Hall

STOP PRESS

Irrelevant to post but have just come across this Facebook Page of Moths found by BSG Ecology in 2014. Click on the pictures to find their names.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY WOODLOUSE

I was out photographing dandelions when I found this one by a pipe leading from a meter box.

April 26th 2013

Of course, it may not be a dandelion. There are lots of yellow flowered plants which look a bit like this and have seed clocks and green leaves and . . . 

And if it is . . . what kind of Dandelion? Tim Rich of the National Botanic Garden of Wales left a note on an iSpot entry to say there are at least 235 species of dandelion in Britain so I won't even try to guess. Not that I mind much, this not knowing. I'm a dandelion fan. To see them is almost enough.

Anyway . . . there I was, crawling along the pavement, trying to get a good angle when I met, crawling towards me . . . a woodlouse. My shadow fell across it. It stopped. I moved back. The sun fell on it - and it continued on its way. I leant forward. The suddenly renewed shadow stopped it in its tracks. Lots of insects, I've found, react instantly to changes in light and shadow and will 'freeze' - or fly. (Not that a woodlouse is an insect - it's a crustacean. Isn't life complicated?) (And woodlice don't fly!) This (the light and shadow thing) can be handy to know if you want to take a photograph. Though it's not such a handy fact if your particular insect/crustacean will only stay still in the shade. Nor is it a long term handy-ness if your woodlouse learns to ignore these sudden changes in light and decides to barge on regardless - as 'mine' did.

So, what kind of woodlouse? Africa Gomez, of the University of Hull, has an interesting post about woodlice on her BugBlog where she mentions there are over forty-five British species of woodlice. Not quite as many as there are of dandelions but . . . still more than I can name!

I don't know whether it had anywhere particular in mind when it set out on its walk or if my leaning over it diverted it from its path but, fairly quickly, it decided to do a loop, march on through light and shade and head away towards the wall . . .

April 26th 2013

. . . where little plants have begun to grow beside a down pipe.

I know you are unlikely to take my advice and kneel on the pavement to see what you can see but . . . there's a lot going on down there.

April 26th 2013

There it goes!

P.S. This is a larger Rough Woodlouse I came across last August.

Rough Woodlouse - Porcellio scaber - August 19th 2012

Isn't it beautiful?

Thanks to Tim Rich (National Botanic Garden of Wales) we now have a link to a 'Plant Crib' on different kinds of dandelion. Click HERE.

Tweet

OH ALRIGHT - THERE ARE FLOWERS TOO!

While bemoaning grey days and bleak economics, one can't pretend that green plants and bright flowers aren't great lifters-of-spirits-ers.

There are the obvious ones for the time of year.

Like blackthorn blossoms that open before their leaves arrive.

And I am specially encouraged by flowers which spring open in city streets. Ones which live there despite the odds. (Or, perhaps it's odd that we don't expect them and sometimes don't see them there.)

March 26th 2013

This flower is growing at the top of a flight of underpass steps in Bournemouth city centre. (A city with a population of around 168,000.) It's a Speedwell. Maybe a Common Field-Speedwell (Veronica persica) (which can also be called 'Persian Speedwell' - pretty exotic name as well as pretty flower!).  Or it might be a Green Field-Speedwell (Veronica agrestis). Maybe I'll get a definite ID from iSpot?

March 26th 2013

This is the plant the flower is growing from. As you can see, there are quite a few buds waiting to open.

And between the cobbles of speed bumps in a Weymouth housing estate.

March 31st 2013

Common Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna). Each flower takes up about two square millimeters. These are not growing in a busy road - but dustcarts and cars do drive over them. I doubt (though I haven't stood there to check) that anyone (except me and people who've stopped to ask why I'm crawling around in the road) have noticed they are there.

Oh, and why not

March 31st 2013

notice the daisies? These are growing in an un-trampled area of a park. Unsurprisingly un-trampled because there is one basket ball hoop and one five aside goal. Not entirely inspiring when both are for team sports!

Tweet

YOU'LL FIND PLENTY OF FLOWERS ELSEWHERE

March 27th 2013

Tomorrow, changes to state benefits kick in. Many will find they can no longer afford their rent. Homelessness is likely to increase.

Whatever you think about benefits, trying to solve the problems of our national economy by putting more people onto the streets doesn't make sense. At least, I don't think it does.

Easter is not about daffodils. Daffodils are cheerful. They lift our spirits. We can rely on them to pop up each spring. That's one of the reasons we like them. We can count on them to tell us dark times are passing, the sun is on its way.

But Easter? Easter is about the unexpected.

I could show you flowers. But I'm going to show you a city plant instead. A tiny bit of green rammed against a huge city office block. It's to the right of the fat grey pillar. There are more further along.

The changes to benefit may not turn millions onto the street to join this little plant. In a way that's one of the silly things about this situation. The small amounts of money docked from family purses will not, even when put together, solve our national problems so why are we doing it? There's something vindictive about blaming the poor for problems created by people much wealthier than them. But the anxiety in families threatened with poverty and homelessness - their anxiety will be immense.

The next time I go by this huge building with its smart glass and massive paved area - I expect the plant will have gone.

Tweet

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY GARDEN

Let me introduce you to my garden. It’s easy care and forever surprising. Indeed, it needs no care at all. It decides for itself what's in it and I never lift a finger to help. I never water. I never pull out weeds - for there are no weeds to pull.

But don’t think it is perfection. By no means. The air is often dreadful. There few places in it I would want to sit. Other people sometimes interfere with the plants; one minute they are there, then suddenly, they are gone. When this happens, it can be disappointing. Worse than that, I can feel a little heart tug. But there’s always a good supply of new ones. Part of the fun is to seek them out and choose them; to note them, peer at and appreciate them. And I always, always, have a little glow of satisfaction when I visit my garden - for it is secret. Nobody visits but me. Hardly anyone even knows it exists. Until today, that is, for I’m telling you now! But there will still be an element of mystery because it covers such a large area it’s difficult to discern and its borders are fluid.  I doubt if anyone who reads this blog would be able to find a single plant in it.

So - let me introduce you to my garden, my garden of the streets - and a little of what it’s like in March

Here are a couple of lawns.

March 29th 2012

I have no idea how many people pass this little lawn during the course of the day but it's set in the side of steps up to a commercial building.

February 29th 2012
(I know that's not March -
but it's only one day out. It didn't change much overnight!)

And here is another. Durable. Hard wearing. No mowing needed. Tolerates drought, flood, full sunshine and shade.

It’s a good time for flowers. There have been some in the winter months; I have sought them out and I’ll return to them. But they've grown old and dusty and I expect you’d like to see new-leafed, freshly opened ones just now.

March 30th 2012
The dandelion at the front of the picture is clear to see - but it's not alone.  There's one with two flowers beyond. Can you see that one? And there are many in the wider fore-court behind me. It belongs to a pub which was closed a few years ago after the river next to it flooded the cellars.  It's deteriorated much since then.

March 30th 2012
Ivy-leafed Toad Flax. In the wall of a large car-park. 

Dandelions really are beginning to assert themselves. Although my garden is a street one (a garden of urban wild plants) if people leave their own gardens untended, I reckon the plants which grow there can be included in mine too. These are 'shared' plants.

March 28th 2012

Like this dandelion.

I have a selection of rockeries. In some, the plants are very small.

March 28th 2012

These ones (above) have to be small or lorries would squash them. They are between the cobbles in the speed bump below. A dustcart had driven over it in both directions a moment before taking this picture.

March 28th 2012

The orange sticks are cigarette buts. That will help with scale.

Given that I have not seen anyone else crawling about on pavements, on the steps to public buildings or in the middles of roads, I suspect looking for these plants and admiring them is a minority interest. And I doubt our streets would be as safe as they are if lots of people took it up. But until I started to look out for urban wild plants, I hadn't realised how many there are to miss!

March 29th 2012

There are succulents too. These little ones will grow into a clump over the crack at the side of the step.

March 28th 2012

Bushes cut down last year are reasserting themselves.

This buddleia will grow substantially throughout the summer and will probably flower.

March 30th 2012

This is the bud to watch. Below is the place where it is.

Buds on the trees are beginning to bulk and green.

March 30th 2012

So, there you have it - a garden with lawns and flowering borders; rockeries, bushes and trees. All are free and free living. People walk through this garden every day. Maybe they notice some of its elements. Maybe they don't. Maybe they chose special plants themselves, perhaps without even realising it. I think this is most likely to happen with trees. Even those with only a subliminal awareness of the urban wild will mark the difference between winter and summer, no-leaves then, suddenly, leaves - a time of sweaty offices and ice-creams at weekends.

Do you have an urban garden?

__________
                                                                  

I'm Following a Tree

Are You?

A Growing List!

arignagardener

Down by the sea

Flighty's plot

Gardening Ways

Gardens Eye View

Hyde Daily Photo Volume 2

josephinesgarden

Lichfield Lore

Moongazy Girl

On The Edge Gardening

Patiopatch

small matters

solsticedreamer

the blackberry garden

The Wilder Garden

Tree Care Tips

welsh hills again

Willow's Woolly World

Windy Willow

I'm Following a Tree

Are You? 

___

If you have posted recently

about the life of a particular tree

 you are 'following',

let me know 

and I'll put a link here.
* * *
On the Edge Gardening
Tree Watch
Lichfield Lore
Tree Routes

                      

                    

                                    

Tweet

Follow @LucyCorrander