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These days, I feel like a single candle, cursing the darkness, both literal and figurative. The Anthropocene weighs heavy on my mind, and heart: Global atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentration has increased 30% in my lifetime, reaching levels that have not been seen for at least hundreds of thousands of years. Global climate change is accelerating. We are seeing the effects in more extreme weather events. Our complex earth systems are driven toward chaotic respones by warmer termperatures, greater atmospheric moisture, destablizing air and ocean currents. What fossil carbon we haven't burned, we've converted to plastic, contaminating the deepest ocean trenches, and our food supply. We are causing the Sixth Great Extinction of species, and life, on the planet. Not only is there no political will to interrupt our collective psychosis, the kleptocrats insist on doubling and tripling down, forcing ever-wider disparities in wealth and income. As long as they get theirs before...

Today is World AIDS Day. By coincidence, the 41st president also just died, reminding me - and the cohort of survivors from his dark reign - how many more of us died on his watch from inaction, and more active hatred. It's also my dad's mortiversary, the 10th anniversary of his death. As I did ten years ago , I turned to baking. In anticipation of our upcoming tree-trimming party, and a hoped-for cookie-decorating side activity, I chose a rolling cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour. Since I'm unfamiliar with this type of cookie, I stayed as close as I could to the original recipe. I consider these a qualified success. There are some improvements I can make, mostly about technique. I'm happy with the basic recipe. Ingredients Confectioners' sugar, 1-1/4 cups / 5-1/2 ounces (Their recipe gives 5 oz as the weight equivalent, but this is what my scale came up with) Unsalted ("sweet") butter, 18 tablespoons = 1 cup + 2 tablespoons, room temperature (I neglect...

I'm limiting this list to northern North America for two reasons: Restricting this list geographically is in keeping with my specialization in plants native to northeastern North America. There are many more tropical plants, and plant extinctions, than I can manage; for example, Cuba alone has lost more plant species than I've listed on this blog post.  If you have additions to this list, please let me know, and provide a link which I can research. Astilbe crenatiloba , Roan Mountain false goat's beard, Roan Mountain, Tennessee, 1885 Narthecium montanum , Appalachian Yellow Asphodel, East Flat Rock Bog, Henderson County, North Carolina, before 2004? Neomacounia nitida , Macoun's shining moss, Belleville, Ontario, 1864 Orbexilum macrophyllum , bigleaf scurfpea, Polk County, North Carolina, 1899 Orbexilum stipulatum , large-stipule leather-root, Falls-of-the-Ohio scurfpea, Rock Island, Falls of the Ohio, KY, 1881 Thismia americana , banded trinity, Lake Calumet, IL, 1916 ...

On November 1, 1918, the worst transit disaster in New York City history occurred just outside Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The wooden cars of the Brighton Beach line of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (B.R.T.) company left the tracks, crashing inside the tunnel beneath the busy intersection where Flatbush Avenue, Ocean Avenue and Malbone Street met [ Google map ]. The Malbone Street Wreck killed nearly 100 people and injured more than 250. Criminal trials and lawsuits arising from the accident dragged on for years, contributing to the bankruptcy of the BRT. The name "Malbone Street" became associated with the disaster; it's known today as Empire Boulevard. The BRT line followed roughly the current route of the B/Q subway lines from Coney Island to Prospect Park, and the shuttle from Prospect Park to Franklin Avenue. Conditions for the disaster were created by a number of factors. World War I, and the influenza pandemic, were still raging. A multi-year projec...

A small patch of biodiversity - i.e.: weeds - from my driveway. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal has people talking about it, e.g.: on the Twitter . The term "plant blindness" has been in use for a while, especially among those of us intensely interested in the subject of plants, from gardeners to botanists. "Apps" and Social Media I've seen folks get more interested in plants when they can reduce, or eliminate, the risk of being shamed by others for ignorance. (Which is nothing to be ashamed of, nor to shame others for. We all start out ignorant. Choosing to remain so, on the other hand ...) I've been on BugGuide for a decade. This is an expert-curated Web site where you can upload observations of any insect - and many other arthropods - seen in Canada and the continental United States. I've learned a tremendous amount from the experts there, both professional and "amateur", and continue to do so. However, it is curated; I've ...

2018-06-23 : Updated with more links. Following is the outline, speaker notes, and references of my talk at this year's Native Plants in the Landscape Conference. This was to have been published as a speaker handout for attendees, but it never made it to the conference Web site. So I'm publishing it here. This isn't intended to stand alone. This post has many links to my blog posts and photos for further reading and viewing. And the presentation itself is available on Slideshare . About Me My New York City Gardens 1981-1992: East Village, Manhattan Lesson: Buildings -> Shade 1992-2002: Park Slope, Brooklyn Lesson: Concrete -> Containers 2002-2005: Park Slope Lesson: Weeds and Invasives 2005 to Present: Flatbush, Brooklyn Lessons: all of the above Genius Loci Geography is Destiny Long Island PLACE: Long Island Geography > NYC Eco-Regions > Flatbush Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Long_Island NASA Landsat satellite global mosaic image of Long ...