Book Review: Seeds by Richard Horan

Horan’s new book Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton can be read as a collection of short stories. Pick your favorite literary figure and read about his or her tree(s). (I wish one could do the reverse: pick a tree and read about the writer(s) it inspired.)

Image: Cover of Seeds by Richard Horan (source)

By the way, Horan includes non-writers like Muhammad Ali. Growing in the yard of Ali’s childhood home in Louisville, Kentucky is a catalpa.

Ali’s childhood home was exactly halfway down, on the right. There was only one house on that side of the road with a big tree out front. Guess whose it was?....Catalpas have the largest leaves of any tree in North America—about the size of a standard sheet of paper and shaped exactly like a heart. The tree looked to be about seventy-five years old, more broad than tall, with hundreds of engine-oil-brown bean pods dangling from its branches like chocolate Christmas ornaments….I took a running start and jumped, trying to knock it [a seedpod] down. I wasn’t even close. I tried several times, and was so intent on my mission that I didn’t even consider the possibility that people in the surrounding houses might have been watching me. I finally took off my belt and hit the pod with it, like a piñata. It was full of seeds. (pages 177, 179)

These excerpts are exemplar of Horan’s storytelling throughout the book and one of the reasons I really enjoyed reading Seeds. His descriptions are lively and evocative. Here are 10 additional Reasons to Read Seeds:

• A happy coincidence: The book was published this year, 2011, which is the International Year of Forests declared so by the U.N. General Assembly.  If you’ve got a favorite tree, consider blogging about it through The Tree Year project.

• Well-done, realistic illustrations of seeds, seedpods, cones, samaras, acorns, nut cases, buds, and leaves grace the first page of each chapter.

• There are many plant physiology lessons. For example, Horan writes about the American beech at the house of Pulitzer Prize winner Esther Forbes this way:

The car came to rest directly below the most spectacular American beech tree I’d ever seen. Its silvery trunk was broad and gnarled, with Herculean musculature sufficient to support an extraordinary array of low-lying, long-distance branches. In fact, a few of its bow-shaped appendages reach all the way to the hood of the car, extending some thirty feet from the bole, the part of the trunk beneath the point where branching commences. (page 44)

• Horan is a landscape historian/archaeologist! Still at the former home of Esther Forbes, this time writing about the property:

Back on top of the property, I became dazzled by what I found. The land had two levels, and at the edge of the upper level was an old metal arbor that leaned well off kilter but still managed to form a square walk-through tunnel about forty feet long. Morning glory vines and other wind-abouts wove through the mesh along the sides and top. This was a remnant of Esther Forbes’s garden, no doubt. (pages 47-48)

• Always wondered about the meaning of meaning of the Latin names of trees? Horan provides explanatory translations. An example is that of the Latin name for the redwood Sequoia sempervirens which means “always alive.”

Redwood cones are a contradiction: they’re tiny. I’ve read that redwoods reproduce primarily through vegetative reproduction, a process by which a rhizome or stem on the root grows up to become a new tree. Lots of trees reproduce in this manner. What I live about the reproductive process is that the new tree is genetically the same old tree. (page 74)

• You can learn about birds, too.

• There are lots of little known (to me) facts about famous conservationists. John Muir was a fruit farmer even though “his true love [was] nature” (page 107). Hmm, are orchards not nature, too?

• There are many “I’ve thought that too” moments such as when a travelling companion of Horan’s says: “You know, when you initially arrive at a site, you think there’s nothing there, but after spending a little time looking around, trees begin to appear.” (page 141)

• This book will make you want to: read the classics, if you have not, or read them again if you have; visit California; and spend more time in the southern U.S.

• I leaned about a gap in my arboreal bookcase: A Natural History of Eastern and Central North American Trees by Donald Culross Peattie.

If you have read Seeds please let us know what you most enjoyed about the book. The book is available for purchase via Harper Collins Publishers and you can browse inside the book, too.

While reading the book I thought of a couple of websites that might be of interest to you tree folks: the Death of a Million Trees blog about "describ[ing] the projects in the San Francisco Bay Area that have destroyed or are planning to destroy over one million trees" and Bronwyn Chester’s chronicle of trees in Montreal at Les promenades dans la Forêt Montréal.

Thank you to Carl Lennertz at Harper Collins Publishers for a review copy of the book. Also, thanks to Richard Horan for setting up the website LiterarySeeds.com so that we can “keep the spirit of the book going online.”

Stay tuned for reviews of Public Produce by Darrin Nordahl and Under Cape Cod Waters by Ethan Daniels.  We have reviewed Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning by Timothy Beatley, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities by Peter Harnik, and Flora Mirabilis by Catherine Herbert Howell.

Sidewalk gardener

On our way to the waterfront, we noticed a gardener preparing to plant around the base of a street tree on Bleecker Street at West 11th.  We stopped and chatted for a few minutes.  I asked him how he decided on what to plant and he said his decision is based on three factors:

1. Experience and what worked well in previous seasons,

2. What looks good at the nursery, and

3. Colors that match the cupcakes (I assumed he meant the frosting on the cupcakes sold by Magnolia Bakery).

Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 3)

We are back with two friezes located in a station outside of Manhattan.

Can you guess the station and subway line?

Update, 5/29/2011: These friezes were photographed at the Grand Army Plaza 2/3 Station.  The artwork is titled "Wings for the IRT, The Irresistible Romance of Travel" by artist Jane Greengold (1993) (info via NYCSubway.org).  Stay tuned for Subway Series No. 4.

More Subwayana (thank you Bonnie Hull) at
Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 2)
Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 1)

Brooklyn Animal Architecture Safari

Led by Landscape Architect Marcha Johnson, the (mostly) Animal Architecture Safari began at the Brooklyn Public Library at Eastern Parkway near Grand Army Plaza on Saturday, April 30.  April was Landscape Architecture Month and the walk was sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement and Appreciation of Animals in Art and Architecture (7A), the NY Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and organized by New York Civic. Both 7A and New York Civic were founded by former park commissioner Henry Stern who was in attendance at the Brooklyn safari. (Stern led the Manhattan safari on April 10.)

The tour began with 15 people including two children.  The first sight on the tour were the panels on the door of the library.  The main panels feature animal characters in famous work of American (U.S.) literature.  (The side panels are devoted to the arts and sciences.)  The animals are a rabbit (Br'er Rabbit), whale (Moby Dick), raven (sitting on Athena's helmet in an Edgar Allen Poe poem), ox (Babe), wolf (possibly White Fang of Jack London stories), cockroach and cat (Archy and Mehitable), and owl (possibly of the Owl & the Pussycat).

From the main entrance to the central library, we looked at the special entrance to the Children's Library.  The gate is decorated with squirrels, each holding an acorn.  Squirrels are associated with contradictory meanings such as thrift, obedience, and greed.

Across from the library is the Union Temple of Brooklyn.  The temple's facade is decorated with deer, a lion with rosettes, fruit garlands, and the "Rose of Jacob."  The latter is not a true rose; it is a lily, according to a quite knowledgeable man on the tour.  Israel is known as the "land of the deer/gazelle" while King David is known as "lion heart."

A block away from the temple is a statue of Civil War general Henry Warner Slocum on his horse.  The horse sculpted with a raised leg symbolizes victory.  Read more about the Slocum Monument here.

On Butler Plaza we admired Tudor roses on a tall apartment building and floral ornamentation on a series of low-rise apartment buildings.  At Sterling Place we were introduced to the Celtic "green man," a face shrouded by leaves; sunflowers, signs of hospitality; and scallops, symbols of St. James Path.  The shape of the scallop, we were told, is a metaphor for the many paths taken by the pilgrims which led to one point, the tomb of St. James.  This point is confirmed in the Wikipedia entry for the Way of St. James.

The building at 327 Sterling Place was a delight; its facade is decorated with fruit garlands and ven the grill work on the fire escapes is ornamented.

From Sterling Place we retraced our steps to Grand Army Plaza and visited the Bailey Fountain which is dominated by the sculpture of Neptune and a ring (or oval) of London planetrees.  The Bailey Fountain was sculpted by Eugene Savage and built by Edgerton Swarthout.  Even without the water, the fountain was exuberant!  The afore-mentioned Nepture, nudes of Wisdom and Felicity, frogs, fish, fruits, lions, and a water snake/dragon.

Our next stop on the safari was the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.  We saw more men on horses here, specifically Grant and Lincoln on horseback. 

We ended the tour across the street at Prospect Park.  Our final sights were we looked at urns decorated with olives branches and double-headed snakes and the Four Eagles monument by MacMonnies and White.

Ever since the safari, I have been more observant of architectural details.  Here are a two photographs of local animal architectural details as well as a red tailed hawk atop Judson (likely Bobby of Violet and Bobby) and a live zebra but more likely a horse painted as a zebra (seen on Mercer Street).

Image: Panel, 195 Broadway

Image: Bird atop lamp, Washington Square Park

English Elm in the Tree Year, part 2

The mature English elm at the northwest corner of Washington Square Park is in full leaf.

The seeds are almost gone - dispersed by wind and squirrels and birds.  Though "[t]he wildlife value of elms is low as compared with oaks, maples, and dogwoods," elm seeds and buds "are used considerably by songbirds and gamebirds as well as squirrels," writes Martin, Zim, and Nelson (1951) in American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits.

Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 2)

Original, 4/28/2011: Heading home from a business luncheon I noticed the sign pictured below.

Can you guess the station and subway line?

Update, 5/10/2011: This subway art was photographed at the Canal Street A/C Station.  Stay tuned for photographs in No. 3.

Book Review: Biophilic Cities by Timothy Beatley

 I enjoyed Timothy Beatley's book Green Urbanism, so I was enthusiastic to read his latest, Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning.

The term biophilia is probably familiar to those who have read E. O. Wilson or Stephen Kellert. Wilson originally developed the concept in his 1984 book Biophilia. A decade later, in 1993, The Biophilia Hypothesis by Kellert and Wilson was published. Beatley defines biophilia as “the extent to which humans are hardwired to need connection with nature and other forms of life.” The biophilic city is a city that is full of nature (“nature-ful”).  In Chapter 2, Beatley narrates where nature in cities are: above us, at the ground level, and below us. It exists in different sizes and forms. Some of this nature is remnant and some is designed.  Furthermore, biophilic cities have developed strategies to foster a “nature-ful” state, to provide access to and knowledge of nature in cities.

While Beatley argues that “there is no single or definitive definition” of a biophilic city, he outlines the components of this type of city, offering a list of potential indicators. A biophilic city could be measured by its biophilic conditions and infrastructure (ex: percentage of city land area in wild or semi-wild nature or number of community gardens and garden plots); activities (ex: percentage of population engaged in nature restoration and volunteer efforts or extent of recess and outdoor playtime in schools); attitudes and knowledge (ex: percentage of population that can recognize common species of native flora and fauna); and institutions and governance (ex: priority given to environmental education or number of city-supported biophilic pilot projects and initiatives). Each of these dimensions and measures are grounded with cases from around the world (see Chapter 3, pages 50-81).

The design and planning of a biophilic city occurs at several scales; the primary ones are the region, the city, the neighborhood, and the building. In Chapter 4 (Biophilic Urban Design and Planning), Beatley argues that “[t]he best biophilic cities are places where these different scales overlap and reinforce biophilic behaviors and lifestyles….” This is my favorite chapter in the book. Each scale is addressed separately but Beatley deftly makes the connections among them. Restoration and designing anew are giving equal footing in Beatley’s discussion of nature cities. Also, he does not rely on the “usual suspects” to illustrate the four scales or the design elements of each scale. Some examples are the Ballard Public Library’s green roof in Seattle (building), Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. (block/school), Teardrop Park in New York City (neighborhood), San Luis Creek in San Luis Obispo (community), Understenshojden, Sweden’s eco-village (new development), and Hannover, Germany’s “green ring” (region). Urban agriculture is one of Beatley’s “biophilic urban design strategies” and he discusses the Montreal Rooftop Garden Project, the vegetable gardens at McGill University, Community Roots in South Boulder, and Urban Farm in Phoenix. Like Green Urbanism, most of the cases in this book are located in North America, Europe, and Australia. Buildings in Zimbabwe (page 54) and Abu Dhabi (page 60) are featured in the book.

The list of biophilic projects and initiatives is impressive given the regulatory and socio-cultural barriers that Beatley outlines in Chapter 5. Beatley points to San Francisco sidewalk gardens program; City Repair in Portland (Oregon); and New York City’s Summer Streets as examples of relaxing engineering standards “while also protecting human health and safety.” On the socio-cultural side, barriers are aesthetic in nature as well as stemming from “fears about nature itself” and fear of danger and harm from other humans.” Jane Jacobs’s “eyes on the street” is invoked but Beatley also offers community policing and a volunteer trail watch program in Anchorage, Alaska as community institutions that have worked to allay fears of being in the environment. Two fascinating aspects to this chapter are Beatley’s examination of new roles for existing institutions and the role of urban leaders in mainstreaming the biophilic city. An example of a new (biophilic) role for an existing institution is one that may be familiar to some of you. A traditional horticultural society, in this case, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, created several urban (inner city) greening programs under its Philadelphia (Philly) Green program.

Beatley argues that [m]ayoral leadership…has been essential in a number of larger cities….” He points to New York City’s Bloomberg (think PlaNYC) and Chicago’s Daley (think green roofs and Millennium Park) as well as Seoul’s Lee Myung-bak (creek daylighting) and Curitiba’s Jaime Lerner (invented bus rapid transit). Leadership is not limited to mayors; architect Jane Martin was influential in San Francisco’s redesigned permit for sidewalk gardening, for example.

Beatley begins Biophilic Cities with thorough review of the literature on nature benefits and ends the book with future research questions (budding scholars take notice).  In his concluding Chapter 6, he also provides examples of how technology can be used to actually experience urban nature more regularly.  I will end this review with an extended quote from this chapter:

There is a remarkable amount of nature in and around cities, and in addition to creating more environmentally sustainable urban areas it can and should serve as the foundation for deeper, more meaningful lives….It is a different concept of nature from the more Arcadian notions that tend to underpin our national park system, for instance. It is a nature that has been heavily impacted by the human hand yet no less sheltering and restorative of mind and spirit. And increasingly it is a designed nature, as when we seek to include green elements such as green rooftops and vertical gardens.

The extent of the wildness will depend on where in the metropolitan area we are looking, of course: In the very dense core of a large city it will be harder to see it and to nurture it, but easier perhaps on the edge. But cities must increasingly be understood as essential to preserving and restoring nature, for instance, by reducing the size and land area consumed by buildings and hard spaces, and at the same time integrating new nature into those cities (from sidewalk gardens to vertical green walls, to recycling urbanized land into new wildlife habitats) and creating the conditions essential for a biophilic form of living that facilitate and nudge urbanites to live healthier, more physically active outdoor lives (emphasis added).

I would like to see a biophilic cities website of the cases in the book as well as an interface where readers could add their own examples of biophilic design elements. If you are interested in the concept of designing nature in cities, check out our nature making [pdf] project. Finally, our thanks to Jamie Jennings and Meghan Bartels at Island Press for a review copy of Biophillic Cities.

Stay tuned for reviews of Seeds: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton by Richard Horan and Under Cape Cod Waters by Ethan Daniels.  We have reviewed Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities by Peter Harnik and Flora Mirabilis by Catherine Herbert Howell.

Bird Watch: Bird nature in cities

Two fairly recent conversations featured birds.  In the earlier one, a family member commented that pigeons "do not count as nature."  The the more recent conversation, a friend, commenting on the nesting pair of red-tailed hawks on Washington Square South, said, "That's a good thing -- there is not that much nature around here."

Image: Red-tailed hawk nest, Bobst Library, NYC (see top center)

Of course I hold opposing views to those expressed by my family and friend.  My perspective has only strengthened after reading Biophilic Cities by Timothy Beatley (stay tuned for a review).  Beatley writes,

In understanding the nature of cities it is necessary to think beyond our usual approach to visualizing or imagining space and place, and to understand that we can see nature everywhere in cities: it is above us, flying or floating by, it is below our feet in cracks in the pavement, or in the diverse microorganic life of soil and leaf litter.  Nature reaches our senses, well beyond sight, in the sounds, smells, textures, and feelings of wind and sun."  I have found, as Beatley has noted, that as I learn more about my (nearby) environment, my neighborhood seems more "nature-ful."

Image: Song sparrow, courtesy of Ken Thomas/wiki (source)

I have been aurally observing a bird song in the mornings but could not see the bird(s) which produced it.  I figured I needed to look for a song bird and sought answers online and discovered the Urban Bird Sounds Project produced by the Codman Academy Charter Public School in Boston.  Urban Bird Sounds Project is a compilation of 19 bird songs with narration by the Codman students.  The birds I have been listening for in the morning are song sparrows (listen to the song sparrow's song).  I also identified another common bird in my neighborhood, the European starling.  The starling was featured in this week's New York Magazine's Intelligencer; it is described as one of "an ever-growing menagerie of species that have already arrived to mess with our waterways, airspace, and general well-being."

Image: Anna's (?) hummingbird and nest, Berkeley (original post)

Serious birders keep a life list.  I am not engaged in serious birding but I do maintain a bird list here in NYC which includes: pigeon, mourning dove, European starling, song sparrow, house sparrow, and red-tailed hawk.  My Berkeley bird list includes house finch, cedar waxwing and Anna's hummingbird.

What's on your bird list?

Index: Human Flower Project essays

I am a correspondent for Human Flower Project founded by sociologist and writer Julie Ardery in 2004.  Julie describes the project as

an international newsgroup, photo album and discussion of humankind’s relationship with the floral world. We report on art, medicine, society, history, politics, religion, and commerce....By studying flowers, we look into human emotion and value. Since the flower trade is global, and has been for centuries, by following the circuit of plants across the world, we track international relations and economics.

I write essays about people-plant relationships and the impacts of land use policy on plants.
new! Trailed by Roses

What's an Urban Forester?

Mother's Remedies from Jamaica

Mercer Street, You Could Be Cooler

Matchmaking on the Wedding Day

A Legacy of Jamaican Fruits

Escalator Garden

Kings, Queens and Mangosteens

Listen Up: SF Garden Show 2009

Oops a Daisy ~ Plant Idioms

The Florists of Telegraph Avenue

Walking with 'Sharp-eyed' Margot

Bookends: Native and Ornamental

Gardening in Prison

Street Trees: Let’s Think Outside the Wires

Bringing City Trees to Fruition

Eat Street Trees!

Eat Street Trees! promotes the planting and eating of edible urban forests.  (The fruit of some trees can be drunken; for example, the green walnut is a primary ingredient in the Italian liquer nocino.)  This project was developed while eating the fruits (and nuts) of Berkeley's street trees.  We would like to see edible urban forests and one strategy to accomplish this goal is the Edible Pocket Woodland.  Here is some background.

Much of the discussion of urban agriculture focuses on annual crops or herbaceous perennials, the types of food grown in home gardens, community gardens, and sold at farmers markets. Fruits are sold in markets but tend to be rare in home and community gardens in contrast to the amount of vegetables that are grown.  The addition of fruit and nut trees to the landscape offers tremendous ecosystem benefits ranging from climate cooling and rainwater capture to wildlife forage to local food provision.

The specific proposal is the Edible Pocket Woodland or the (in) tended integration of habitat and ecosystem services with food provision in neighborhood settings.  Annuals and herbaceous perennials are included but are not the dominant vegetation type, The concept is inspired by Robert Hart's "forest garden," Hoving's "vest-pocket park," and Sara Stein's "pocket woods."

The arrangement of plants would mimic the layers found in a forest ecosystem similar to Hart's design. The scale and location of the Edible Pocket Woodland within the urban fabric is modeled after the vest-pocket park; it requires small parcels within a neighborhood setting. Finally, the aesthetic would be reminiscent of Stein's pocket woods; a wooded landscape but one that keeps safety concerns at the fore by allowing views through and around the taller vegetation.

We are collecting photographs (and stories and recipes) of edible street trees.  Please submit your photo(s) to info AT localecology.org.  Enjoy!

Redbud (Cercis canadensis), Churchill Square Park (NYC).  Flowers and seeded pods are highly nutritious (hat tip: A Year With the Trees).

Loquats, Los Angeles, courtesy of Heather Parlato (read Heather's essay at LAist)

Chestnuts (Castanea sativa), Greenwich Park, courtesy of Tom Turner/Gardenvisit.com (Read Tom's essay at gardenvisit.com)

Serviceberry, New York City

Green walnut, Berkeley

Olive, Berkeley

Sour orange, Italy, courtesy of Katydid on the Street

Sour orange, Sevilla

Sour orange, Sacramento

Ginkgo, Berkeley