Nature today | Pavement plant of the week: False wall fat

Plants need nitrogen to grow, but if there is too much of it, the balance will be disturbed. That’s where we are right now, and a lot more needs to be done about it, and it’s very painful. What and how, and at the expense of who and where, are harsh choices.

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So let’s go back to the sidewalk plants, and to the most humble of them all: wall recumbent grease †Sagina Procumben† A name that you can use as an oath, if there aren’t many swearings in the world already. What at first glance appears to be a poor, fallen moss, upon closer inspection regularly appears small green-white flowers.

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Ugly things, those flowers. You need good eyes or a magnifying glass to see that they have four cups and four dirty white petals. The plant is especially resilient: it can survive in the smallest gap between tiles and clinker, despite the fact that traffic passes over it and whole tribes pass through it every day. Nitrogen is not a problem, and because other plants do not tolerate harsh conditions, they usually have few meadow grasses and some tough survivors. If there is more space, it will grow into a small, prickly shrub. The stems continue to branch and a flower will appear with a little luck. No matter dry or wet, as long as there is a little sun, the horizontal grease wall is satisfied.

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Don’t feel good about yourself unless you are sure you have the right wall lube for you: it can also be dark she or Excellence† If you are sure about your business, register your discovery of Pavement Plants Research†

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I’ve read it before: Members of the Dutch Society of Plant Artists photographed seventy pavement plants. Marlus Freiberg Had the daunting task of photographing a recumbent grease wall. The successful result can be seen at least until the end of August at City Museum Mausoleum†

Text: Hanneke Jelles, botanist horz leiden
Images: KU Leuven; Natalie Tyrion Haneke Giles