Natural History

Wild in the City

Red-berried Elder

Bittersweet

By Diane Griffin, Doug Kelly, and Ian MacQuarrie

What creatures are these, perfum-ing the night air with their sub-

tle scents, surviving only by stealth and subterfuge? They are resilient and street-smart and tenacious. They are the plants of the city.

We mean here the true city plants —not the pampered and manicured in-habitants of lawn and flowerbed — but the forgotten denizens of back-yards and alleys. They raise their dirty faces from ash heaps and cracks in the pavement. Not for them the cozy ambi-ance of clipped hedges and spotless gravel walks; their homes are littered with Lysol cans and broken wine bottles. They are not watered with con-siderate hoses, but by roof-drips and rainfall and wandering drunks. Their soil is not conditioned and balanced. Their insect pests are not attacked with all the miracles of modern chemistry. And yet, they survive, with Promethean indifference to humans and their ways.

Life in the city is difficult for these wild plants. In congested urban areas, oil-fired furnaces and automobile ex-hausts create higher levels of acidic pollution than in the country, while the liberal use of street salt in winter often leads to soil pollution. Soil compaction and, of course, trampling are chronic dangers. But there are also compensa-tions. In an urban environment, there is an increase in soil and air tempera-ture compared to rural areas, while man-made structures provide useful protection from the wind. As a result, city plants bloom earlier than their country cousins.

Heal-all

Roots

Some are relicts of the vegetation in a pre-Charlottetown time, for instance yellow wood-sorrel or wild rose. Others came with the European settlers and found the disturbed ground to their liking, becoming true Islanders. Some of these immigrants came in seed grains brought in by sailing ships or freight cars. Others stowed away in ship's bal-last, and still grow at the shore's edge where they were dumped. But most have been more adventurous and have spread further.

Like the citizens of Charlottetown, the plants of the city have various origins.

Yellow Wood-sorrel

Among the immigrants we find bitter-sweet growing over tumble-down fences, betraying its relationship with the potato by hosting the familiar Colorado beetles. The misleadingly-named Canada thistle conceals its Eurasian ancestry behind many buildings. Stinking Willie (or Sweet William, depending on your historical allegiances) keeps alive the memory of William, Duke of Cumberland — "Butcher" Cumberland —• whose bloody suppression of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 earned him the lasting enmity of many Scots. It is a troublesome, poisonous weed where livestock graze, but constitutes no problem behind the Queen's Parkade in downtown Charlottetown.

Plants fall into and out of fashion. Some favourites of gardeners in years past now grow wild in the city. To use

the botanical term, they have "escaped from cultivation." Dames'-violet is more apt to raise its purple flowers to the sun from waste ground now. Another one-time favourite, the orange day-lily has a nostalgic look; it is a truly old-fashioned plant. Trees such as Manitoba maple were planted as ornamentals with the encouragement of the Department of Agriculture. Its seeds now spring up from window-boxes and basement window-wells all over Charlottetown.

Wild Morning-glory

New Homes and Old Hang-Outs

Where the plants of the city originated is sometimes less interesting than where they are now found. City ceme-teries are home to many plants. Among the well-kept lawns one may find volunteers such as evening primrose. Another patch of yellow flowers turns out to be moneywort, perhaps planted on a loved one's grave, now a cemetery escape. Old-fashioned lilies maintain a stubborn existence among the graves, and on the headstones themselves, cir-cular patches of lichens grow with appropriate slowness, adding decora-tion to the stonecutter's art.

Victoria Park has a healthy assem-blage of old residents and new. Relicts of the original woodland remain. Clintonia, with its yellow flowers that develop into blue "beads" in autumn, is perhaps most easily recognized. With it one usually finds wild lily-of-the-valley and false Solomon's seal. The same habitat may support painted trillium as well. These are old friends. Much of Victoria Park has been cleared, how-ever, and many weeds have introduced

16

The Plants of the City: A Checklist These plants are found growing wild in Charlottetown:

SCIENTICNAME Acer negundo Acer platanoides Acer saccharum Achillea borealis Aesculus hippocastanum Agrostis tenuis Alisma triviale Arctium minus Barbarea vulgaris Betula papyrifera Bidens frondosa Brassica campestris Brassica kaber Capsella bursa-pastoris Carum carvi Cerastium vulgatum

var. hirsutum Chrysanthemum leucanthemum Cirsium arvense Cladonia cristatella Clintonia borealis Convolvulus sepium Daucus carota Epilobium angustifolium Epilobium glandulosum Equisetum arvense Erysimum cheiranthoides Fragaria virginiana Fraxinussp. Fraxinus nigra

\ Galeopsis tetrahit Galium triflorum Gleditsia sp. Gnaphalium uliginosum Hemerocallis fulva Hesperis matronalis

\ Hieracium aurantiacum Hieracium canadense Hieracium floribundum Hordeum jubatum Hypericum perforatum Impatiens parviflora Lathyrus palustris Lathyrus pratensis Lechea intermedia Leontodon autumnalis Lilium lancifolium Linaria vulgaris Lotus corniculatus Lupinus polyphyllus Lysimachia nummularia Lythrum salicaria Maianthemum canadense Marchantia sp, Matricaria maritima Matricaria matricarioides Medicago sativa Melilotus alba Myosotis scorpioides Oenothera biennis Osmunda claytoniana

COMMON NAME Manitoba maple Norway maple sugar maple yarrow horse chestnut bent-grass water plantain common burdock yellow rocket white birch common beggars-tick mustard common mustard shepherd's purse caraway mouse-eared chickweed

ox-eyed daisy

Canada thistle British soldier lichen blue-bead lily wild morning-glory Queen Anne's lace

| fireweed willow herb field horsetail wormseed-mustard wild strawberry ash black ash hemp-nettle sweet-scented bedstraw locust low cudweed orange day-lily dames-violet deviPs paint-brush Canada hawkweed king-devil fox-tail barley common S t John's wort touch-me-not wild pea yellow vetchling pinweed fall dandelion tiger lily butter-and-eggs bird's-foot-trefoil lupin moneywort purple loosestrife wild lily*of-the-valley liverwort mayweed pineapple-weed alfalfa white sweet clover forget-me-not evening primrose interrupted fern

Silverweed

Oxalis stricta Phleum pratense Flantago major Poa pratensis Polygonum aviculare Polygonum cilinode Polygonum sagittatum Populus alba Populus tremuloides Potentilla anserina Potentilla intermedia Prunella vulgaris Prunus virginiana Ranunculus acris Ranunculus repens Raphanus raphanistrum Rorippa islandica

var. islandica Rosa rugosa Rosa virginiana Rubus strigosa Rumex acetosa Rumex acetosella Sambucus pubens Senecio jacobaea

\ Senecio viscosus Sisymbrium officinale Sisyrichium montanum

var. crebrum Smilacina racemosa Solanum dulcmara Solidago canadensis Solidago graminifolia Sonchus arvensis Sonchus asper Sochus oleraceus Sorbus americana Spergularia rubra Stellaria graminea Taraxacum officinale Thymus serpyllum Tilia europea Tragopogon pratensis Trifolium arvense Trifolium dubium Trifolium hybridum Trifolium pratense Trifolium procumbens Trillium undulatum Tussilago farfara Ulmus americana Viola sp.

Choke Cherry

yellow wood-sorrel timothy broad-leaved plantain Kentucky bluegrass knot weed knot weed tear-thumb silver poplar trembling aspen silverweed cinquefoil heal-all choke cherry tall buttercup creeping buttercup wild radish marsh cres

wild rose common wild rose wild raspberry garden sorrel sheep sorrel red-berried elder stinking-Willie clammy groundsel hedge mustard blue-eyed grass

false-solomon's-seal bittersweet Canada goldenrod narrow-leaved goldenrod sow-thistle spiny sow-thistle annual sow-thistle American mountain ash sand spurrey stitch wort dandelion wild thyme linden goat's-beard rabbit-foot clover little hop clover white alsike clover red clover low hop clover painted trillium colts foot American elm violet

17

themselves into the flora. Common plantain and fall dandelion are truly common, together with the aptly-named heal-all, while paths are carpeted with plants that can stand a lot of tram-pling, such as low cudweed and pineapple-weed. These species seem to thrive on adversity.

The phrase "across the tracks" will soon be as obsolete and unintelligible as many another old saying. However, there are plants as well as people that live across the tracks. Generations of freight cars bringing western feed to the Island have also brought uninvited guests, which have established them-selves around the now-quiet railway yard and line. So, as well as cultivated oats and barley, foxtail barley can be found (although "squirreltail" would be a more descriptive adjective). Yellow vetchling is also an old railroader. These plants are growing in very impoverished conditions, and have survived years of routine herbicide treatment.

On to Beaconsfield, headquarters of the Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation. The back yard of this stately Victorian building glories in possessing an Asiatic touch-me-not, a plant that is spreading through the city, and also a familiar European, forget-me-not Is this a conspiracy of plants with three (hyphenated) names to assemble sub rosal Further experi-

Evening Primrose

mentation is necessary in order to verify or reject this intriguing hypothesis.

Across the street, Government Pond still exists, threatened more and more each year by civil service parking needs. Around its edge grows the expected tall buttercup, but the uncommon water-plantain is also there to surprise and delight the urban botanist. For bota-nists are much like cats; if you want to keep their attention you must supply the unexpected.

Another old saw comes to mind as we walk back uptown: "Step on a crack, break your mother's back." In many places on Charlottetown sidewalks, the saying should be, "Step on a crack, you are crunching pineapple-weed or little hop-clover or young yellow-rocket." These brave bits of greenery have true

street-smarts; they can tolerate much trampling, littering, winter salt and sand, and still come back for more. In fact, if left alone they will take over, and create miniature ecosystems that trap and develop soil. Within such eco-systems, insects and arachnids will soon be busy, adding their components to the amazingly stubborn brew of city life. We have not yet created a species list for small city animals, but it will go far beyond the common pest species (such as cockroach and flea) that every-one would expect to find.

Vacant lots and like places abound with a variety of native and introduced plants. The area behind the Queen Street P a r k a d e is a f a sc ina t ing amalgam of weedy species, abandoned garden plants, and both native and introduced trees. On an August day in 1987, we identified over 50 species in one hour. There is rhubarb and rag-wort, colt's-foot and common burdock, morning glory and Norway maple, fire-weed and wild radish — a place like this is a one stop-shopping centre for plant ecology students.

Being of fanciful minds, we looked for particular plants in association with certain Charlottetown buildings. For instance, it would be quite appropriate to find medicinal herbs near the old clinics and hospitals, or shepherd's purse (also known as pick-pocket) around banks and law offices. We have to admit that this approach was only mildly successful. These days people with sore throats or delicate stomachs will step over heal-all to get some drug-store nostrum with a better advertising budget, unaware of the centuries of medicinal use of such modest plants. When matching plants to professions, what can one conclude about the red-berried elder growing from a rain-grate at the provincial building? It seems to be miming, "Let me out of here!"* The rough bark and soft center of the stem are surely intended to remind us of something, but exactly what is unclear.

Conclusion Moneywort

For the botanist, the worst of all worlds is one in which every plant is known and all grow exactly where they are expected. That will never happen in the city. This year when we returned to the

*Elders are worth a short chapter of their own. They are medicinal, sometimes poisonous. The berries can be fermented.

jungle behind the Queens Parkade, we found an ugly cement-block building squatting where dozens of wild plants had grown. The site had been (for now at least) destroyed. The plants seem to say: "There are limits." They can withstand rain, trampling, and trash, but not an entire building being dumped on their heads. And so, more habitat for city p lan ts h a s disappeared temporarily.

Temporarily? Yes, indeed. The seeds remain; next spring the construction rubble will sprout green, not from plas-tic trash, but from the cholorophyllous miracle that enables all of us, city and country-dwellers alike, to stay alive on this planet. For urban plants, the city is no Eden . . . but it is a home.

Painted Trillium

Sources Botanists have not documented urban vegetation very well on Prince Edward Island. In our libraries, there is much more botanical information available about remote locations than about our immediate surroundings. And while detailed information can be obtained on the trees in the Townshend Woodlot on the Souris Line Road, we have no extant map showing Charlottetown's trees. The material for this article came largely from personal observation over many years of what grows in urban areas on Prince Edward Island, sup-plemented by field work during 1987 and 1988. Some of the research origin-ally done for Atlantic Wildflowers (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1984), authored by Dianne Griffin, Wayne Barrett, and Anne MacKay, once again proved helpful, providing ane-ther excuse never to clean out the files.

For the budding urban botanist, David Erskine's excellent The Plants of Prince Edward Island (1960) remains an invaluable reference. It has been revised recently by Agriculture Canada and is once again available. Erskine's book is complemented by its provincial cousins: Harold R. Hinds, Flora of New Brunswick (1986) and A. E. Roland and E. C. Smith, The Flora of Nova Scotia (1969). Other secondary sources in-cluded Anne Ophelia Dowden's Wild Green Things in the City (1972).

The authors would like to express their appreciation to Maria MacDonald, who assisted with the field work, and Dr. Hal Hinds, who graciously per-mitted us to reproduce plant illustra-tions from his book. g£|

18