Biodiversity is a priority for the immigrant city dweller who may have left behind a landscape of tropical or temperate forests in the Caribbean, South America or Cambodia. I design and garden in New York City, but I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago. My situation is not unique. Immigrants make up more than a third of the population of New York City, and many adapt to and suffer from the loss of connections to plants and the wildlife they sustain.
As someone who spends a lot of her time trying to convince others that insects are incredible animals worth saving, I can still be surprised to hear so much moth disgust. Moths are an incredibly diverse group of insects. North America is home to more than 12,000 species—an astonishing number compared to our relatively paltry 800 or so species of butterflies! Before I start waxing poetic on moths, let’s dive into some basics.
Dr. Enrique Salmón, a member of the Raramuri tribe, is an ethnobotanist and expert on indigenous cultural concepts of the natural world. In his book Iwigara, which is presented as a traditional botany book, he writes about eighty native plants. He mixes scientific and horticultural information, cultural uses, stories handed down, and his personal memories of the plants.
The Town of Wellesley makes updates to improve a girls’ softball field, mitigate stormwater runoff and create a habitat for wildlife. The field was bordered by a busy street, an aqueduct, a neighborhood, and mature trees which provided many landscape challenges.
