Wings of Knowledge Lecture Series
Wild Urban Plants
Dr. Peter Del Tredici
Tuesday, May 3, 7–8:30 p.m.
Library Living Room
Free admission. Open to the Public.
Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University presents a lecture based on his studies of plants found in cities, along highways and near abandoned factories.
Dr. Tredici’s book, Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast, acts as a field guide to identify 222 plants that grow spontaneously in the urban environment, filling vacant spaces between roads and taking over abandoned factories. The book offers photographic illustrations of each plant accompanied by a clearly written description that explains a plant’s ecological functions, habitat and characteristics.
Other books in the library collection that appreciate the virtues of weeds are:
A Weed by Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don’t Plant The author, Nancy Gift, is a weed scientist who has learned to accept that weeds aren’t so bad and not all deserve to be eradicated. She reviews the garden year, beginning with spring when she is most tempted to cook wild foods and includes recipes for Dandelion Wine (p. 44-5) and Camping Pesto (p. 18) made from wild garlic.
Wicked Plants: the Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart. The author, in her introduction, says she didn’t write this book to scare people away from the outdoors; on the contrary, she wanted people to understand its power and to give plants respect. She says, “I love the ocean, but I never turn my back on it” (p. xv) because she lives on the northern California coast, where the Pacific Ocean takes lives. Within in the category “Dangerous” are common houseplants, such as the Peace Lily and Philodendron, the reason for many calls to poison control centers. The introduction refers to a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter, (full-text available in Net Library) in which an elderly doctor cares for a walled garden of poisonous plants. There are poison gardens around the world (p. 231-2) and links to poison plant databases at www.wickedplants.com.
A Weed by Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don’t Plant The author, Nancy Gift, is a weed scientist who has learned to accept that weeds aren’t so bad and not all deserve to be eradicated. She reviews the garden year, beginning with spring when she is most tempted to cook wild foods and includes recipes for Dandelion Wine (p. 44-5) and Camping Pesto (p. 18) made from wild garlic.
Wicked Plants: the Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart. The author, in her introduction, says she didn’t write this book to scare people away from the outdoors; on the contrary, she wanted people to understand its power and to give plants respect. She says, “I love the ocean, but I never turn my back on it” (p. xv) because she lives on the northern California coast, where the Pacific Ocean takes lives. Within in the category “Dangerous” are common houseplants, such as the Peace Lily and Philodendron, the reason for many calls to poison control centers. The introduction refers to a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter, (full-text available in Net Library) in which an elderly doctor cares for a walled garden of poisonous plants. There are poison gardens around the world (p. 231-2) and links to poison plant databases at www.wickedplants.com.
Del Tredici, Peter (2010) Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell. QK118 .D45 2010
Cornell. QK118 .D45 2010
Gift, Nancy (2009) A Weed by Any Other Name: the Virtues of a Messy
Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don’t Plant. Boston: Beacon.
SB611 .G54 2009
Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don’t Plant. Boston: Beacon.
SB611 .G54 2009
Stewart, Amy (2009) Wicked Plants: the Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother &
Other Botanical Atrocities. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin. QK100 .A1 S74
Other Botanical Atrocities. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin. QK100 .A1 S74
