Plants can grow in what appear to be the strangest places. This can be frustrating for property owners (e.g., grass in the gutter; footpaths cracked by pohutukawa roots).
But our view of plants is often from our own animal-centric perspective; unlike our zoological kin, an individual plant doesn’t have the option of moving to a better spot. Wherever a seed or spore falls is going to be the home of that plant for the rest of its life; that is, of course, if it even germinates at all. Grow, wherever you end up, or perish.
Consider these observations that have been extracted, with permission, from a ‘zine’ (a zine is a self published, inexpensively produced publication with a small circulation) published by “jMj”:
Growing wild in Wellington
my homage to plants that take root as they choose in our city
jMj 2012
I love the way plants grow
all over the place.
Weeds, I read once,
are ‘plants out of place’.
But, who’s to say?
Who’s to say?
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
Breaker Bay
Taupata.
High on the
just find yourself a place
and grow achiever list.
At times flat across the ground
shaped by the wind.
Here
All spritely
In the gutter.
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
Epuni Street
My first flat was here.
This is so Epuni Street for me,
this dear, bright, hopeful flower
at the mouth
of a dark damp cave.
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
Epuni Street
Aerial roots
a source of
endless fascination for me.
What am I taking in
from the air
just by
being in it.
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
Pohutukawa are
not native to this region.
They say.
Tell that to the pohutukawa.
Above Strathmore.
6” Coastal battery
on the Hills above Strathmore
70th Heavy Battery
Guns. Not much beside remains.
Taupata -
6” too?
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
Queen’s Wharf
You can look at the boats
and the buildings
the planes coming in and out
and the sculptures.
And then down, ankle height, here’s this fern, shining
from light rain.
Image © to and courtesy of jMj.
What do you see in the plants in these images? Are they ‘battlers’ to be admired for making what they can of a bad situation? Or are they a reminder that plants would quickly envelop our urban world if we stopped pushing them back?
Thanks very much to jMj for sharing these observations and the colour photos – the zine itself is in black and white.
If you’d like to share with Te Papa’s blog your own images of plants growing in unusual places, here’s my email.
Finally, if you haven’t already seen, here’s a lancewood that went straight to the top (and please excuse the pejorative title).
