What's growing in a poorly tended short stretch of Morningside Park

At the time of fall some formerly nondescript plants are making themselves obvious by flowering and providing some color against the developing browns and yellows of fall and the withering and falling leaves. I noticed some color in a part of Morningside Park that I use on frequent pandemic-trips out to connect and climb the many staircases in the Park. The stretch is at the higher level just in from 113th St and Morningside Drive and extends south from between the first and second staircases downs to the top of the staircase that leads down to the ball fields. It's about 10 meters long.

Here are a good collection of asters. These tiny flowers are blossoming all over Morningside now but I also seem them all over other parks too at the moment. There seems to be quite a variety of them, with different colors. One aster, shown here, iNaturalist steadfastly refused to identify beyond the "American Asters" stage. There is also some white snakeroot. This plant is also blossoming all over the City's parks now too. Apparently it is poisonous. Also this stretch of Morningside Park, as is the case for much of the Park, has a nice collection of Asiatic dayflowers. I first noticed one of these in a quaking bog in New Jersey at the end of summer. I thought it was unusual then but now am seeing them all the time in Morningside. Although a tiny flower they catch the eye due to their lovely color. There is also some Liriope growing here with its tiny purple flowers vertically arranged along the top of stems. And then there appears to be a white mulberry trying to get going. And of course there is the pokeweed - so common but I love the look of its berries and the riot of color of the whole plant - and the prosaic mugwort, and the common lamb's-quarters too. And more recently I noticed porcelain berry which as always was beautifully colored with a nice variety of colors on each plant. Porcelain berry is also out all over the city right now - there is a whole avenue of it along the cycle path between the Riverside Park waste water treatment plant and the Riverside Drive viaduct for example. And there is an abundance of low smartweed which also is flowering all over city parks at the moment.

White snakeroot is indigenous to the east and is the cause of "milk sickness" when consumed in the milk of animals that have eaten it and apparently caused the death of thousands of European settlers (and perhaps also killed Abe Lincoln's mother) before they got to know the plant, or were told about it by native people.

Low smartweed is equally abundant in city parks with lovely purple flowers and was introduced from Asia as recently as the early 20th century. Liriope is also an import from Asia and is commonly used in gardening. The porcelain berry is from Asia and was introduced for ornamental reasons - its considered an invasive - apparently it's edible - the Brooklyn Botanic Garden says it "has the winning combination of slimy and bland" but birds are ok with it. It's in the grape family. The asters are native to North America - 90 different species of them all in all. The lovely Asiatic dayflower is described by iNaturalist as a "noxious weed" - but it is used in Chinese medicine and was the source of dyes for famous 18th and 19th entry Japanese woodblock prints so let's appreciate it for that.

Not a bad collection of plants of interest in a few largely untended yards of a park!

Note: On a trip through here December 6 I noticed that the Liriope had now produced lovely stems of small black berries. I took a photo and would add here if I could work out how to add an observation after publishing this.

Note: In January 2021 I was surprised (no doubt since I am not a botanist!) that four new plants were happily growing at this site despite it being mid-winter. These were garlic mustard, catchweed bedstraw, common chickweed and ivy-leaved speedwell. All apparently can leaf as early in the year as January. What happens if they they get snow on I don't know but perhaps must get the chance to see. Morningside Park in January is awash with ivy-leaved speedwell which I find interesting - I do not see it as abundant or barely at all in nearby Riverside and Central Parks. There were also a few plants of red dead nettle growing.

After January we had three major snowstorms that left all of these plants completely covered. Once the snow melted the plants were still there, happily continuing to grow. In March many of these flowered even as it remained stubbornly cold. Not in this stretch of Park, but nearby, I also spotted Siberian squill and periwinkle flowering in late March.

Posted on October 16, 2020 08:39 PM by rseager