Help support Virens aka Evelyn

Please donate toward Evelyn Fitzgerald's metastatic breast cancer fund.

.................................................

ABOUT MY PHOTOSTREAM

Over 1,000 botanical photos documents characteristics of 100 species of New York City street trees and plants, including some weeds. In the tradition of botanical illustration of the 1800s, I have titled each image with genus and species names so that they have educational as well as aesthetic value.

It is my hope that many will enjoy the beauty of the plants while becoming familiar with their botanical names.

PLANTS AS ECOLOGICAL THREATS

Many of my descriptions of my images are concerned with the ecological threat that numerous alien and/or invasive species have to our region, the Lower Hudson Valley of New York State. You may pursue further reading on each invasive species under the links I have provided, mostly from this source: Plant Conservation Alliance's Alien Plant Working Group www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact.htm

It is important to note that many of these invasive species can be purchased from plenty of mail order nurseries on the web, where they are sold especially for their attractiveness. It is our custodial responsibility as landscape architects to know these threats.

SPECIAL THANKS:

I would like to thank my two teachers who lent me their knowledge and inspiration on countless walking tours in pursuit of plant identification. Kenneth Kammeyer, CLARB, has been a UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture teacher for 30 years. He led us to many parks and nature preserves in Palm Desert, Encinitas, La Canada, Arcadia and Santa Barbara, California. Professor Jess Hanks, Botanist, City College of New York, died of cancer in 2001. He led us through the wilderness of Van Cortlandt Park, Inwood Hill Park and Central Park and described the ecological and Native American history of these areas as well as the plants while he was in chemotherapy. Happy memories of both those bearded teachers were often with me while I traipsed through the old woods of Riverdale Park in New York City with my camera.