Download Native Plants in New York City

New York City
Native Plants in
New York City
Europeans first came to where New York City is now in the 17th century.
They brought crops and animals from their home countries with them. They
brought trees and plants from all over the world for their new parks and
gardens. Plants brought from other places are called introduced plants.
The settlers cut down trees and plants to make room for houses,
farms and roads. As more and more people came here to live, they built a
city in place of the farms. There were few places left for wild animals to live.
This is called habitat loss.
Plants that grow in a place naturally are known as native plants.
Most of the native plants that used to grow in New York City disappeared.
They didn’t have space left in which to grow. They didn’t have the right
growing conditions anymore.
Some plants and trees grow faster or taller than others do. Some
of them have more seeds than others do. Some plants can grow when
conditions change and some cannot. If plants grow into new places and
crowd out the plants that used to live there, they are called invasive plants.
Most invasive plants are introduced plants. However, some native plants
become invasive, too.
Now people have learned that sometimes native plants are better
than introduced plants. Native plants are food for native animals. Native
plants are used to the temperature and rainfall that an area has. People
began to replant native plants in places where they had disappeared. They
even realized that some native plants are pretty enough to LOOK AT in
their parks and gardens! — Naola Gersten-Woolf
Eastern red cedar
is an evergreen
tree that has two
different kinds of
leaves. The young
ones look like
pointy needles.
The older ones
are flat scales. The
cone looks like a
bluish “berry.”
Go With a
Grownup!
In a native plant garden everything
LOOKS LIKE it did before settlers
came here. You can see a native
plant garden at:
 The New York Botanical
Garden: 200th Street and
Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx;
718-817-8700; www.nybg.org
 Brooklyn Botanic Garden: 900
Washington Avenue, Brooklyn;
718-623-7200; www.bbg.org
 Wave Hill: 675 West 252 Street,
Bronx; 718-549-3200; www.
wavehill.org
 Queens Botanical Garden:
43-50 Main Street, Flushing
(Queens); 718-886-3800;
 www.queensbotanical.org
— Naola Gersten-Woolf
Beach Plum has a small, dark
purple fruit that humans can
eat. But you should not eat wild
fruits unless a grown-up who
knows about them tells you that
they are safe to eat.
Drawings by Adira Riben
LOOK IT UP! Leslie Day’s new book, Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, will help you find native plants.
New York City Audubon
Drawing © by Melissa Guion
The Future of the
Pennsylvania and
Fountain Landfills
What happens to all the trash that people throw away every day?
Where does it go? How much is it? Well, the answers are that it usually
goes to a landfill and it is a lot.
A landfill is built by piling the trash in layers and covering each
layer with soil. It is like a layer cake with many layers of cream and
cake. New York City’s landfills were built near wetlands. The builders
did not know what the landfills would do to the plants and animals
that lived in these wetlands. The homes of many plants and animals
were destroyed. Now, we understand what landfills do to our plants
and animals and we get rid of our trash in different ways.
The Pennsylvania and Fountain Landfills along Jamaica Bay in
New York City are about 100 feet high. That’s a lot of layer cake. Right
now they are closed and being made safe for the environment. New
York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is planting
trees, shrubs and grasses on top of the landfills. Almost 35,000 trees
and shrubs will be planted by the time DEP is finished. This is the
biggest project to restore the landscape ever done in New York City.
You can LOOK AT this work when you drive along the Belt
Parkway in eastern Brooklyn.
One plant that is
being used is called butterfly
weed. This plant grows
about 24 inches tall. It has
bright orange flowers in the
summer. It usually grows
in open, dry, sunny fields.
Sometimes you can find it
in open wooded areas and
along the sides of roads. It is
called butterfly weed because
its flowers attract butterflies. The flowers make nectar that is a favorite
of many butterflies. LOOK AROUND roadsides to see if you can find
these bright flowers with butterflies nearby. — John McLaughlin
Beach heather is a short shrub with
many branches. The leaves are very
small and woolly. That keeps the
leaves from drying out.
The new antlers that male deer (stags) grow
every fall are covered by fuzz. The red fruits of
staghorn sumac are also covered with fuzz.
New York City Audubon runs programs for adults and children. LOOK IT UP at: www.nycaudubon.org. 2
Look Around New York City
These native plants are being planted on top of the old Pennsylvania and
Fountain Landfills. They grow well in sunny places with dry, sandy soil.
Birds that live in grassy areas eat the berries and seeds of these plants.
There are many kinds
of wild blueberry
bushes. The blueberries
that you buy in the
store or from a farm
stand come from a
similar bush.
Bearberry grows
close to the ground.
The bright green
shiny leaves turn
bronzy purple in the
fall, but they do not
fall off.
Go With a
Grownup Again
New York City is still home to
native plants. You can see them
all in one place at the Native Plant
Demonstration Garden in Staten
Island. This garden has almost 300
different native plants. Pack a picnic
lunch and learn about the plants living
and growing there. LOOK AROUND.
Do you see any plants that live near
your house?
The Demonstration Garden is at
2252 Richmond Avenue. To find out
more about visiting, call 718-667-2165
or check out their website at
http://www.nycgovparks.org (search
Greenbelt Native Plant Demonstration
Garden). — Lisa Paschall
Do It Yourself!
Little bluestem is a grass
that grows three feet tall!
The dried stalks turn
orange in the winter.
Ask your family, classmates or
neighbors what they know about
local native plants. Make a chart
with their answers.
Send it to NYC Audubon by e-mail
(subject: LANYC do it yourself) or use
the regular mail address on page 4.
Send it by April 1, 2008, and NYC
Audubon may ask you to become a
Junior Contributor to LOOK AROUND
for 2008-2009.
Drawings by Adira Riben
Butterfly Weed photo: G.A Cooper,
USDA-NRCS Plants Database.
Go to Trips & Classes, then LOOK AROUND New York City: Birding Adventures for Kids.
New York City Audubon
3
Tree of Heaven
Maybe you have seen a tree of heaven in your neighborhood. Just
LOOK AROUND and you might see one. They are very common
in New York City. The problem is that the tree of heaven is an
invasive species. It is a plant that did not originally grow here. It
first came to the United States from China in 1784 and quickly
spread across the country. Trees normally compete with each
other for room to grow. The tree of heaven grows quickly. This
means that native plants such as oak, pine and maple trees have
a very hard time growing near it. The tree of heaven is also a very
difficult tree to get rid of. If you cut it down, a new tree will grow
from the old roots. Many people work to control the spread of the
tree of heaven. You can do your part to help by planting native
plants instead of an invasive plant like the tree of heaven.
— Jeffrey Adams
Each tree of heaven makes many
fruits called samaras. Each samara
is a seed surrounded by a thin wing.
Tree of heaven,
Central Park
One leaf of the tree of heaven
grows as much as two feet long. It
has many smaller leaflets on
each side of its center vein.
Drawings by Elizabeth Vigil
Our Thanks to:
Copyright © 2007
New York City Audubon
71 West 23 Street
New York, NY 10010
212-691-7483
[email protected]
www.nycaudubon.org
Naola Gersten-Woolf:
Publisher and Managing Editor
Chris Rubin:
Art Director
Lisa Paschall:
Editor
Cecelia Rogers:
Banner Designer
Glenn Phillips:
Executive Director
4
Jeffrey Adams for being our 2007 – 2008
Junior Contributor.
Con Edison for its generous
funding of this publication.
Leslie Day and Karen Cook for reviewing
the articles.
Look It Up!
Betty Smith wrote the book
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in
1943. It is the story of young
Francie Nolan, who grows up
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,
in the 1920s. Francie and her
family are very poor. They
face many challenges. A tree
of heaven that grows in their
backyard is very important to
the family. The book was made
into a movie in 1945.
— Lisa Paschall and Leslie Day
Look Around New York City