{"id":23863,"date":"2017-09-06T16:27:32","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T20:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=23863"},"modified":"2017-09-06T17:03:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T21:03:32","slug":"ecologies-elsewhere-giving-urban-weeds-third-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2017\/09\/06\/ecologies-elsewhere-giving-urban-weeds-third-glance\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecologies of Elsewhere: Giving Urban Weeds a “Third Glance”"},"content":{"rendered":"
New modes of engaging with the urban landscape will not be based on superficial aesthetic concerns or sentimental rear-view thinking, but a celebration of the messy complexities and nuances of novel ecosystems, and the active role they will continue to play in the nature (and future) of our cities.<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n

Volunteers. Exotics. Aliens. Weeds.\u00a0<\/em>Whatever happens to be your preferred nomenclature when describing the existence and behavior of spontaneous vegetation, it\u2019s clear that many biases abound. We pluck, poison and mulch our landscapes to keep these decidedly untidy forces at bay. Yet have we also effectively mulched our mindsets? \u00a0Have we blunted our ability to see these ubiquitous features of our everyday lives as anything other than botanical garbage? Might we benefit from taking a second, or a third glance at these novel ecosystems, perhaps even include them into our expanding definitions of \u201curban resilience\u201d?\u00a0A growing body of discourse and practice says yes.<\/p>\n

First glances can be deceiving<\/strong><\/p>\n

When famed Italian artist and cartographer Giovanni Battista Piranesi decided to depict the dereliction of 18th century Rome in his Vedute<\/em> series, it was not by accident that he reserved amplified poetic license in expressing the ways weeds had taken over. Looking into the margins of these highly detailed etchings, one can\u2019t help but ponder the role of common European weeds such as burdock (Arctium lappa<\/em>) and common reed (Phragmites australis<\/em>) emerging as central subjects, actively ravaging the skeleton of a once great city.<\/p>\n

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Giovanni Battista Piranesi\u2019s Vedute Di Roma #9, ca. 1760. Source: http:\/\/www.let.leidenuniv.nl\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they were in 18th century Rome, scenes like this have become commonplace at many scales within our human altered environments today, nibbling at the forgotten fringes of our yards and neighborhoods, teasing our ingrained notions of the natural. This is not Nature<\/em> with a capital N, but rather \u201cnature\u201d in its more mischievous and subliminal form. The kind of nature that expresses itself in moments of self-willed ecological poetry: emerging from the shadows and cracks of the sidewalk, or in tangled masses along transportation corridors, or peeking defiantly through the tattered remains of post-industrial ruins.<\/p>\n

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The author at the edge of a Novel Ecosystem in contemporary Rome. Photo: Kim Karlsrud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s no wonder then that these messy \u201cnovel ecosystems\u201d<\/a> aren\u2019t just seen as symptomatic<\/em> of decline, but also symbolic of<\/em> it, even contributive to<\/em> it. But it\u2019s precisely their special status as botanical boogie men that makes weeds so fascinating. At every turn, they seem to defy our instruments of control, and remind us of the chaos which lurks just beyond the veil of order.<\/p>\n

Whether through the process of romantic imitation, clever marketing strategy, or scientific consensus, weeds have always signified the untamed, unwanted or feral aspects of our world\u2014untidy nuisances to be disregarded, slowed, or even killed. One only needs to observe the campy television commercials for Roundup<\/em>\u00ae<\/em>, which typically feature an otherwise average domestic father figure temporarily transformed into a vigilante cowboy of the old west, battling a formidable band of vegetable outlaws. In place of a pistol is a spray wand containing Monsanto\u2019s powerful glyphosate herbicide, armed and ready to chemically restore law and order to the untamed backyard frontier. Weeds in this context are often presented as anthropomorphized versions of themselves, an obvious attempt to exaggerate the pathology of their sinister intentions: thuggish thistles, dastardly dandelions and pick-pocket plantains.<\/p>\n

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Clips from Roundup Commercials. Via Youtube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Clips from Roundup Commercials. Via Youtube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it\u2019s not just suburban dads who vilify these common constituents of the urban ecosystem. Many professional ecologists and conservation biologists, with a longstanding disciplinary bias towards the study of native ecosystems and pristine wilderness conditions, have tended to study alien species exclusively through the lens of invasiveness<\/em>. This lens has proven to be effective and arguably appropriate to understand the ways in which some<\/em> botanical newcomers behave badly when introduced to a new territory\u2014gobbling up resources, altering habitats, displacing native species, and generally wreaking havoc on the ecosystems they invade. The fact that the vast majority non-natives appear to integrate smoothly with their new neighbors is rarely emphasized.<\/p>\n

In its third Global Biodiversity Outlook (CBO-3)<\/em>, the internationally funded Convention on Biological Diversity<\/a> still lists the spread of exotic species as one of the biggest threats to planetary health and sustainability, citing a familiar shortlist of culprits which are laying waste to agriculture, spreading infectious disease, and so on (\u201cGlobal Biodiversity Outlook 3\u201d 2017). Emerging from this demoralizing narrative of loss and degradation is an elevated sense of threat with regard to all non-native species, and a range of land management practices that are based the continuing assumption that native is always good, and exotic is always bad.<\/p>\n

This \u201cgreen xenophobia\u201d is powerful and pervasive, and impacts the ways we think and talk about urbanized landscapes too. Even the relatively nascent field of urban ecology to date has tended to direct much of it\u2019s focus on more charismatic urban megaflora and \u201crestorative\u201d design solutions rather than fostering a deeper understanding of the feral and the funky. Driven by the desire to reconcile the (false) binary of \u201cCity\u201d and \u201cNature\u201d, these management and design strategies tend to disregard or supplant that which may already be thriving as an impediment to the establishment of \u201chealthier\u201d seeming ecosystems.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon was recently reflected upon by Emma Marris in an apt critique she referred to as the \u201cThe Highline Problem\u201d\u2014in reference to New York City’s now iconic landscape darling designed by James Corner\u2019s Field Operations<\/a>. In its former condition as a spontaneous urban meadow on a defunct elevated railway in Chelsea, The Highline likely boasted a range of common weedy species such as tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima<\/em>), fleabane (Erigeron canadensis<\/em>), and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris<\/em>)\u2014all of which are conspicuously absent from the plant palette in its formalized condition today. While noting the project as a gorgeous piece of green infrastructure, Marris questions the costs of this new arrangement in both biological and financial terms, noting the irony that a space which started as a self-willed cosmopolitan urban meadow with an effective operating cost of zero, now boasts the highest maintenance bill of any park in the city (\u201cThe Last Word On Nothing | Urban Wilderness and the \u2018High Line Problem\u2019 \u201d 2017).<\/p>\n

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New York City\u2019s Highline Park, Before and After. Source: http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Second glances as a call to arms<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because they\u2019re less charming than their ornamental counterparts, and seemingly less trustworthy than their native counterparts, the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against the acceptance of weeds as a welcome expression of nature in our cities and in our everyday lives. Yet a growing body of contemporary creative practice and emerging research suggests that despite their unseemly appearance and dubious provenance, spontaneous urban vegetation may actually represent an unlikely expression of urban resilience, worthy of at least a second glance.<\/p>\n

New nature writers such as the previously mentioned Emma Marris, Richard Mabey, and Fred Pierce, examine the deep and complex lives of these plants through lenses as far flung as history and folklore, to invasion biology and climate change (Pearce 2014; Marris 2010; Mabey 2010). In the space of academic ecology, researchers such as Peter Del Tredici<\/a>, Ingo Kowarik<\/a>, and Norbert Kuhn<\/a> have dedicated their careers to understanding the dynamics of urban vegetation in all its forms. Del Tredici\u2019s Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide<\/em><\/a> has been a staple reference for landscape and ecology students since it\u2019s original publication in 2010.<\/p>\n

A unifying theme in the work of these contemporary thinkers is the suspension of disbelief and judgment about non-native species to consider their potential merits as much as their potential risks. Their diverse modes of inquiry are not informed by typical knee-jerk presumptions of guilt, or mythologies of good vs. evil, but by observation and curiosity. Instead of judging species by their origins or aesthetics, they challenge us to consider their actual behavior and contextualize their role in the ecosystems they\u2019ve become a part of.<\/p>\n

Take, for example recent phytoremediation research suggesting that many ruderal species are highly effective \u201cbioaccumulators\u201d, capable of drawing up heavy metals like nickel and cadmium from post-industrial brownfield sites at prodigious rates (Kennen and Kirkwood, n.d.). Common plantains (Plantago major<\/em>) seem particularly adept at plucking particulate pollution right from the air in the roadside environments they tend to inhabit (Weber, Kowarik, and S\u00e4umel 2014). Even dandelions (perhaps the most iconic among the uncharismatic urban microflora) have been studied as a vital early source of spring nectar to thirsty urban pollinators (\u201cUrban Pollinators: Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale agg<\/em>., 2017). In his groundbreaking book<\/a> on the subject, Richard Mabey observes that weeds exhibit an uncanny ability to thrive in even the most disturbed, contaminated, and abused landscapes we create, noting that \u201cWhat we ignore, more perilously, is the fact that many of them may be holding the bruised parts of the planet from falling apart\u201d (Mabey 2010).<\/p>\n

Many creative practitioners have also taken notice. Landscape architects such as Margie Ruddick<\/a>, and David Seiter<\/a> are among the forerunners of innovative new approaches to urban planting design and landscape management. Ruddick\u2019s Wild By Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing Landscapes<\/a>, and Seiter\u2019s SUP (Spontaneous Urban Plants)<\/a> have recently emerged as essential compendia for exploring the cosmopolitan wilderness conditions and potentials in cities like Philadelphia, and New York City. Itinerant Artist and writer Ellie Irons<\/a> evokes weeds as both artistic muse as well as powerful political metaphor<\/a>, and even paints with pigments derived from wild urban plants she\u2019s collected. The so called No-Mow Movement<\/a> in the United States and elsewhere has set its sights on understanding what happens when we intentionally forego the weed-whacker in certain areas of the city and rebrand these sites in a positive light. A growing contingent of amateur urban botanists have even emerged on Instagram (Plants of Babylon<\/a>, The COMMONStudio<\/a>, and LocalEcologist<\/a> as just a few examples) all using 21st century tools to spot, identify and share their casual encounters with common urban weeds.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sign marking the territory of an experimental long-term \u201cNo-Mow\u201d site. Source: www.smartcitiesdive.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps one of the most exciting examples of formally \u201ccollaborating with chaos\u201d can be found in Berlin\u2019s Natur-Park S\u00fcdgel\u00e4nde<\/a>, a public park and urban nature reserve that is decades in the making. Originally used a freight rail yard, S\u00fcdgel\u00e4nde was subsequently abandoned in 1952 and remained virtually untouched and forgotten for nearly four decades amid the economic, political and territorial disputes between East and West Berlin. When curious citizens and urban ecologists visited this territory just after the city\u2019s re-unification in 1989, they were amazed to encounter the active processes of ecological succession playing out right under their noses in the heart of the city. In the spaces of unused railway tracks and open fields of sterile gravel, a novel and eclectic mode of nature had taken hold: Robinia<\/em> trees, and extensive meadows containing ragtag mixtures of native and exotic wildflowers, dry grasslands, and shrubs (Kowarik and Langer, n.d.). Rather than erase<\/em> the novel ecosystems that had emerged there, the design team conceived a plan that embraced<\/em> them. Since it\u2019s opening in 2000, this 18 hectare (44 acre) park has served as a thriving ecological sanctuary and community amenity, home to over 350 plant species, 47 fungi, 30 species of bird, 57 species of spider, as well as numerous wild bees and insects (\u201cNatur-Park Suedgelaende, Berlin\u201d 2017).<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Natu-Park Suedgelaende Plan. Source: wasistlandschaft.de<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pedestrian Pathway within the Natur-Park S\u00fcdgel\u00e4nde. Source: wikiwand.com\/de<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These second glances offer a way out of the limited conceptual traps of upholding \u201cnativism at all costs\u201d,<\/a> and unlocks new narratives of vindication for plants and ecosystems that have been historically marginalized as \u201cguilty by association.\u201d In so doing, these important precedents are helping redefine what it means to live in a \u201cpost-wild\u201d world, and challenging us to expand our outdated notions of what counts as nature\u2014especially in our increasingly urbanized habitats.<\/p>\n

Closer glances of the third kind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Novel urban ecosystems\u2014and the exotic biota that inhabit them\u2014are an unavoidable part of our ecological inheritance in the Anthropocene<\/em>. Despite our best efforts to eradicate or control them, they are here to stay. And they will continue to move, colonize, spread and change. Alien species and \u201cweeds\u201d seem to occupy a distinct niche in our collective consciousness, marked by extreme prejudice, and narratives of loss. But might this be a by-product of our limited purview? Our first glances? \u00a0A range of contemporary voices (writers, artists, scientists, and designers) are moving the needle on novel urban ecosystems, challenging us to give them at least a second glance. Yet there\u2019s still a long road ahead to foster broader acceptance, and deeper understanding of how these messy systems work, and why they matter.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Casual observations of urban botany via Instagram. Source: From Left to Right: @thecommonstudio @plantsofbabylon, @digitaljalanjalan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cases and thinkers cited here should surely stand as a compelling challenge to designers, ecologists, and policy-makers to follow suit. Third<\/em> glances, then, are those that are still yet to come. Imagine the stories that are yet to be told, the scientific insights yet to be made, the landscape conditions and experiences that have yet to be nurtured. Is it possible that there are latent virtues in these messy ecosystems that are still awaiting discovery?\u00a0How might we better incorporate the feral aspects of urban nature into our worldview, our research, our creative practice? How might we continue to work toward better understanding, measuring and incorporating the benefits of novel ecosystems, while minimizing the risks?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to allow these seeds of possibility into our collective discourse about urban resilience, and give them time and space to grow, un-mulched.<\/em> What\u2019s at stake in these new mindsets is not just the fate and perception of \u201cweeds\u201d in our world, but the emergence of new modes of urban<\/em> environmentalism. These new modes of engaging with the urban landscape will not be based on superficial aesthetic concerns or sentimental rear-view thinking, but a celebration of the messy complexities and nuances of these systems, and the active role they will continue to play in the nature (and future) of our cities.<\/p>\n

Daniel Phillips<\/strong>
\nBangalore<\/p>\n

On The Nature of Cities<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGlobal Biodiversity Outlook 3.\u201d 2017. September 3. https:\/\/www.cbd.int\/gbo3\/?pub=6667&section=6700.<\/p>\n

Kennen, K., and N. Kirkwood. n.d. \u201cPhyto: Principles and Resources for Site Remediation and Landscape Design.\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0b_lCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Phyto+kirkwood&ots=rZzkKQtkPy&sig=u4ZYErg_QmbDistsWjr8P5AxqvM.<\/p>\n

Kowarik, I., and A. Langer. n.d. \u201cNatur-Park S\u00fcdgel\u00e4nde: Linking Conservation and Recreation in an Abandoned Railyard in Berlin.\u201d http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/3-540-26859-6_18.pdf.<\/p>\n

Mabey, Richard. 2010. \u201cWeeds: In Defense of Nature\u2019s Most Unloved Plants.\u201d https:\/\/scholar.google.hu\/scholar.ris?q=info:Zdqe_Hi2tuMJ:scholar.google.com&output=cite&scirp=0&hl=en.<\/p>\n

Marris, E. 2010. Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World.<\/em> https:\/\/www.google.com\/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NXF4AAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA173&dq=rambunctious+garden&ots=SabNFPBg7U&sig=gh0nsHkvNNv910FJyUYS5zOPON0.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatur-Park Suedgelaende, Berlin.\u201d 2017. September 3. https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/gardens\/sudgelande_nature_park.<\/p>\n

Pearce, Fred. 2014. The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature\u2019s Salvation.<\/em> https:\/\/scholar.google.hu\/scholar.ris?q=info:dg0ljllhCV8J:scholar.google.com&output=cite&scirp=0&hl=en.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Last Word On Nothing | Urban Wilderness and the \u2018High Line Problem.\u2019\u201d 2017. September 3. http:\/\/www.lastwordonnothing.com\/2017\/05\/01\/urban-wilderness-and-the-high-line-problem\/.<\/p>\n

\u201cUrban Pollinators: Dandelion (Taraxacum Agg.) \u2013 a Valuable Food Source Not Only for Pollinators.\u201d 2017. September 3. http:\/\/urbanpollinators.blogspot.com\/2013\/12\/dandelion-taraxacum-agg-valuable-food.html.<\/p>\n

Weber, Frauke, Ingo Kowarik, and Ina S\u00e4umel. 2014. \u201cHerbaceous Plants as Filters: Immobilization of Particulates along Urban Street Corridors.\u201d Environmental Pollution <\/em>186 (March): 234\u201340. http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0269749113006441.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volunteers. Exotics. Aliens. Weeds.\u00a0Whatever happens to be your preferred nomenclature when describing the existence and behavior of spontaneous vegetation, it\u2019s clear that many biases abound. We pluck, poison and mulch our landscapes to keep these decidedly untidy forces at bay. Yet have we also effectively mulched our mindsets? \u00a0Have we blunted our ability to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":643,"featured_media":23882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,299],"tags":[401,34,38,30,557,89,33,53,404,29],"coauthors":[877],"class_list":["post-23863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-essay-place-and-design","tag-biodiversity","tag-experiencing-nature","tag-gardens","tag-invasive-species","tag-landscape","tag-pollution","tag-resilience","tag-stewardship","tag-value","tag-what-is-urban-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23863"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}