Some people look out for interesting street food or creative entertainers and artists while traveling, craving a unique cultural fix. Not me. I’m into street plants, especially hitchhikers and rowdy renegades looking to party. I can fall head over heels for a gutter poppy (below) or an opportunistic malva (above). Give me a hothead survivor any day over some fickle hothouse wilting petunia.
The thing is…street plants tell the story of a place and reveal both the botanical darlings and trespassers that have inhabited the avenues before. Some plants are old as the seed bank, repeating year after year, and others strike out anew, looking for their opportunity to rage. These plants have style, albeit often underappreciated, and owing to a certain taste, they are nonetheless sculptural and irreverent.
Moreover, they are tenacious, sticking it out year after year in inhospitable climes.
Harts tongue fern
Yes, they may be promiscuous, but who are you to judge…
Mother-of-thousands (Cymbalaria muralis)
Some of them are even stunning acrobats, though they may have questionable habits, including dubious peeping tom qualities—just having a quick look-see over a wall.
Many of them have adapted the ability to hide in plain sight. Don’t write them off; they may still have something to offer the world, including niche ecological habitats and specialist skill sets.
Often unappreciated and sometimes actively harassed, many people observe these plants living on the edges of society as mere weeds, unsightly, and perhaps even obscuring their desired view. Nevertheless, their hard-won characteristics honed from a hard-knock life appeal to me. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that the fortitude exemplified by street plants goes beyond being admirable and moves into the realm of inspiration. Resilience and an ongoing willingness to do it your own way, despite the inevitable disapproval from some flanks, is revolutionary—a force of nature.
Between the cracks, the streets are alive originally appeared on GardenRant on July 30, 2024.
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