Have you ever heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon?
No, it’s not the name of some weird weather pattern. Nor is it a new family saga streaming on Netflix.
And it has little to do with sidewalk plants, although I’m ready to bet you’ll be influenced by this phenomenon once you’ve read this post.
Also called the frequency bias, or the availability bias, it describes a situation when, right after learning, reading or hearing about something new, you start noticing that thing everywhere. Or at least that’s what it feels like. Even when the thing you’re noticing has always been there. Some people call it the “red car effect” – once you decide to buy a red car, you start seeing them everywhere.
This happened to me after doing this interview with Mathilde from the Leiden Botanical Garden in the Netherlands. I started seeing sidewalk plants every time I went for a walk in the city, in every nook and cranny.
What are sidewalk plants?
Mathilde, the botanical garden you work for – The Hortus Botanicus Leiden – wrote an entire book about sidewalk plants, whereas most of us don’t even bother to pay attention to them. How did the Hortus decide to write this book?
We started the street-plant project earlier this year in order to bring attention to all the fun plants that just … grow from the sidewalk! We decided more people should be able to enjoy these plants for what they are: interesting, bold and often quite beautiful plants.
We started to promote sidewalk plants through our social media and with a poster. The people were very enthusiastic about our project and wanted to learn more, so we put together a booklet that will help identify fifty of the most commonly found street-plants.
What are some of the most common sidewalk plants that we may not be paying attention to as we go about our daily lives?
A sidewalk plant you can find virtually anywhere is the broadleaf plantain (Plantago major).
Once you learn to identify it, you will notice it growing everywhere. It’s bright green with big, oval shaped leafs. It flowers late in the year, with spike-like protuberances. They can be very small, or very big, depending on how much time the plant was allowed to grow. It’s a very strong plant and can survive many things with ease, even being stepped on regularly.
It’s even nicknamed the white man’s footstep, and that’s how it got introduced in the USA. This plant was (and still is!) very common in the Eurasia region, and when the colonizers journeyed to The New World in the sixteenth century, it’s believed that the seeds of the broadleaf plantain would often stick to the soles of their shoes. Upon reaching the continent, they brought broadleaf plantain by accident.
Another example of a common sidewalk plant we don’t often give too much attention is pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea). Not only does this plant have a great look, it’s actually a wild chamomile. When you pick it and crush the flowers between your fingers, it has a distinct chamomile-pineapple scent. This plant is edible and you can make tea with it, or add the leaves to a salad. Make sure to wash them thoroughly first, though!
I love stumbling upon pineapple weed, because of its peculiar appearance and great scent. It’s so unexpected!
I think that sidewalk plants get a bad reputation. And a lot of people generally see them as weeds that need to be eradicated. How can we change people’s perception of sidewalk plants?
I totally agree with you that sidewalk plants have a bad rep! I’ve found it is not always easy to change a person’s perception on this subject. A very important first step is for people to learn the names of these plants – that’s why we’ve developed the poster and the miniguide. With those tools, people can actually go out, learn some of the names and engage with these plants.
This is the cure for something we at the Hortus like to call “plant blindness.” The plants have always been there, but most people simply do not see them. And when they do see them, it is within a negative context. Weeds growing in their carefully curated flower bed, for example. By teaching the name of a plant, telling fun facts about it, such as whether it is edible or has an interesting history behind it, it is possible to create a kind of bond between people and plants – just like we do with our houseplants.
What role do sidewalk plants play in our ecosystem?
Sidewalk plants play an important role in our ecosystem. Plants are necessary for biodiversity. Biodiversity basically means all living organisms on the planet work together in a careful balance. Because we remove many plants, such as sidewalk plants, smaller organisms, such as insects, can’t find a place to find food or shelter. A lot of bigger creatures are dependent on insects. Basically, when we remove (too many) plants, the food chain is broken, which will have drastic consequences for the ecosystem.
That’s why it is important to leave sidewalk plants alone as much as possible!
How many types of sidewalk plants have you found?
I have found so many sidewalk plants, I can’t even keep track! In our miniguide we’ve described 52 very common sidewalk plants, but there are many more. According to a Dutch researcher, Ton Denters, there are about 800 species of sidewalk plants in the Netherlands (and surrounding countries) alone. So it’s safe to say I’ve encountered many sidewalk plants already, and will probably find some new ones in the future! Very exciting.
What’s the most interesting plant or plant behavior that you discovered while putting this booklet together?
One plant that’s incorporated in the miniguide is one that caught my attention a while ago, in the spring. It is called hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) and it has found a really cool way to spread its seeds. It produces small, white flowers that eventually turn into seed capsules. Pressure builds up within these seed capsules and when you touch them, they fling seeds all over!
I just thought that was so smart and fascinating.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
It’s too bad we don’t have English source material to share with you yet! I’ve searched online for some weed identification guides, but most of what I could find was written to help exterminate sidewalk plants! That’s too bad.
Hopefully we can provide some English content in the near future! For now, I’ll leave you with an app recommendation: PictureThis. It’s an app that helps you identify plants. If you encounter something interesting looking on the sidewalk, you can pull up this app (or any other plant identification app), take a picture and learn the plant’s name!
If you want to go the extra mile, you can write the name down on the sidewalk with a piece of chalk. That way others can learn what plant is growing there as well!
And finally, we ask all of our interviewees this question: Do you have a favorite houseplant?
That’s a difficult question, as I love all my plant children very much. Between me and my father, we might have over 50 of them! But there’s something about a good Monstera deliciosa. My mother bought one years ago, but it started struggling last winter. My mother had watered it way too much and the Monstera had developed root rot! Big bummer. To save it, I took cuttings from the parts that still looked fine and rooted them in water. Now I have five baby monsteras and I dote on them a LOT! So those are probably my favorite :-).
Thank you, Mathilde, for taking the time to teach us about the importance of sidewalk plants!
I wrote about visiting Leiden Botanical Garden in the post below. It’s truly one of the most beautiful botanical gardens I’ve ever been to.
All images in this post were provided by Hortus Leiden.
