Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter del Tredici

Rhodora, the Journal of the New England Botanical Club “This field guide is useful for trained ecologists, botanists, and naturalists and is accessible to anyone else who wonders what is sprouting up from the sidewalk crack or in that corner of their suburban garden.” Joseph DiTomaso, author of Weeds of California and Weeds of the Northeast “This is a great resource for urbanites to experience the fascination, complexity, and beauty of the plants that grow around them.”

Here’s what reviewers said about the first edition of Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast Thumb through selected entries from the 1st edition of Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast ( Arnoldia 68(1): 13-25, 2010) ( PDF) You can read the introduction to Wild Urban Plants on Amazon by clicking on the “ Look inside ” function of the Kindle edition. The jargon-free text describes the physical features of each plant, its ecological significance, and its relationship with people, including its cultural history and uses. The photos illustrate the habitats where these species typically grow and make it easy to identify them without the use of complicated keys. The book contains over 1,200 of my color photographs that capture 268 common urban plants at all stages of their development. In a very real sense, my book has become a field guide to the flora of the future.

Now, some 16 years later, the species described in the book are becoming increasingly common as the impacts of climate change have become more pronounced. I started writing this book in 2004 with the intention of helping my students identify the plants that grew spontaneously in Boston and it quickly expanded to cover the entire northeast. My book is all about how nature is adapting to climate change

Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter del Tredici