Urban nature: ubiquitous presence

Many plants are now more abundant in the urban environment than in the countryside. This change is mostly due to suburbanisation and the attention paid to air, space en green by urban designers from the 1900 onwards. A lot of these plants commonly seen growing in the urban environment are amongst the most common native plants. These plants are often able to make use of changes human activity has made to the growing conditions or the amount of nutrients available.

The winding stems of Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) will clamber up any vertical support no matter if it is another plant or a manmade structure like a fence or a hedge. The showy white flowers appear only before noon. Another plant known as a weed is the Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). This plant with underground shoots is a valued food plant for many butterflies. It can quickly take over a nitrogen-rich site creating an almost impenetrable mass of stinging leaves. Many lovers of crisp lawns regard the Daisy (Bellis perennis) as an awful weed as this plant can survive a regular mowing. I personally quite like a lawn speckled with these white flowers, especially in parks...

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) is a perennial plant in the poppy family (shown left). It naturally grew on the forest edge, but has successfully conquered gardens, where it likes to grew underneath hedges and in shady corners where leaf litter has accumulated. On moist soil or clay the Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) is one of the most common pants. It's not eaten by cattle. It can colour the banks of waterways yellow and in gardens and parks it can take over given the right conditions. Each node on stems touching moist ground will grow roots. On dryer sandier soils another yellow flower can become truly ubiquitous: the Dandelion. These tough plants grow naturally on poor soils in grassland. In the city they prefer roadside verges (shown right).