Go With aGrownup!In a native plant garden everything LOOKS LIKE it did before settlers came here. You can see a native plant garden at:

The New York Botanical Garden: 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx; 718-817-8700; www.nybg.orgBrooklyn Botanic Garden: 900 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn; 718-623-7200; www.bbg.orgWave Hill: 675 West 252 Street, Bronx; 718-549-3200; www.wavehill.orgQueens Botanical Garden: 43-50 Main Street, Flushing (Queens); 718-886-3800; www.queensbotanical.org

— Naola Gersten-Woolf

Beach Plum has a small, dark purple fruit that humans can eat. But you should not eat wild fruits unless a grown-up who knows about them tells you that they are safe to eat.

LOOK IT UP! Leslie Day’s new book, Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, will help you find native plants.

Drawings by Adira Riben

New York City

New York City Audubon

Eastern red cedar is an evergreen tree that has two different kinds of leaves. The young ones look like pointy needles. The older ones are flat scales. The cone looks like a bluish “berry.”

Native Plants in New York City Europeans first came to where New York City is now in the 17th century. They brought crops and animals from their home countries with them. They brought trees and plants from all over the world for their new parks and gardens. Plants brought from other places are called introduced plants. The settlers cut down trees and plants to make room for houses, farms and roads. As more and more people came here to live, they built a city in place of the farms. There were few places left for wild animals to live. This is called habitat loss. Plants that grow in a place naturally are known as native plants. Most of the native plants that used to grow in New York City disappeared. They didn’t have space left in which to grow. They didn’t have the right growing conditions anymore. Some plants and trees grow faster or taller than others do. Some of them have more seeds than others do. Some plants can grow when conditions change and some cannot. If plants grow into new places and crowd out the plants that used to live there, they are called invasive plants. Most invasive plants are introduced plants. However, some native plants become invasive, too. Now people have learned that sometimes native plants are better than introduced plants. Native plants are food for native animals. Native plants are used to the temperature and rainfall that an area has. People began to replant native plants in places where they had disappeared. They even realized that some native plants are pretty enough to LOOK AT in their parks and gardens! — Naola Gersten-Woolf

NeW YorK CITY AuDuBoN ruNS proGrAMS For ADuLTS AND CHILDreN. LOOK IT UP AT: WWW.NYCAuDuBoN.orG. Go To TrIpS & CLASSeS, THeN LooK ArouND NeW YorK CITY: BIrDING ADveNTureS For KIDS.

The Future of thePennsylvania andFountain LandfillsWhat happens to all the trash that people throw away every day? Where does it go? How much is it? Well, the answers are that it usually goes to a landfill and it is a lot. A landfill is built by piling the trash in layers and covering each layer with soil. It is like a layer cake with many layers of cream and cake. New York City’s landfills were built near wetlands. The builders did not know what the landfills would do to the plants and animals that lived in these wetlands. The homes of many plants and animals were destroyed. Now, we understand what landfills do to our plants and animals and we get rid of our trash in different ways. The Pennsylvania and Fountain Landfills along Jamaica Bay in New York City are about 100 feet high. That’s a lot of layer cake. Right now they are closed and being made safe for the environment. New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is planting trees, shrubs and grasses on top of the landfills. Almost 35,000 trees and shrubs will be planted by the time DEP is finished. This is the biggest project to restore the landscape ever done in New York City. You can LOOK AT this work when you drive along the Belt Parkway in eastern Brooklyn.

One plant that is being used is called butterfly weed. This plant grows about 24 inches tall. It has bright orange flowers in the summer. It usually grows in open, dry, sunny fields. Sometimes you can find it in open wooded areas and along the sides of roads. It is called butterfly weed because

its flowers attract butterflies. The flowers make nectar that is a favorite of many butterflies. LOOK AROUND roadsides to see if you can find these bright flowers with butterflies nearby. — John McLaughlin

Beach heather is a short shrub with many branches. The leaves are very small and woolly. That keeps the leaves from drying out.

The new antlers that male deer (stags) grow every fall are covered by fuzz. The red fruits of staghorn sumac are also covered with fuzz.

Look Around New York City 2

Drawing © by Melissa Guion

NeW YorK CITY AuDuBoN ruNS proGrAMS For ADuLTS AND CHILDreN. LOOK IT UP AT: WWW.NYCAuDuBoN.orG. Go To TrIpS & CLASSeS, THeN LooK ArouND NeW YorK CITY: BIrDING ADveNTureS For KIDS.

Little bluestem is a grass that grows three feet tall! The dried stalks turn orange in the winter.

Go With aGrownup AgainNew York City is still home to native plants. You can see them all in one place at the Native plant Demonstration Garden in Staten Island. This garden has almost 300 different native plants. pack a picnic lunch and learn about the plants living and growing there. LOOK AROUND. Do you see any plants that live near your house? The Demonstration Garden is at 2252 richmond Avenue. To find out more about visiting, call 718-667-2165 or check out their website at http://www.nycgovparks.org (search Greenbelt Native plant Demonstration Garden). — Lisa Paschall

Do It Yourself!Ask your family, classmates or neighbors what they know about local native plants. Make a chart with their answers. Send it to NYC Audubon by e-mail (subject: LANYC do it yourself) or use the regular mail address on page 4. Send it by April 1, 2008, and NYC Audubon may ask you to become a Junior Contributor to LOOK AROUND for 2008-2009.

There are many kinds of wild blueberry bushes. The blueberries that you buy in the store or from a farm stand come from a similar bush.

Drawings by Adira RibenButterfly Weed photo: G.A Cooper,USDA-NRCS Plants Database.

New York City Audubon 3

Bearberry grows close to the ground. The bright green shiny leaves turn bronzy purple in the fall, but they do not fall off.

These native plants are being planted on top of the old Pennsylvania and Fountain Landfills. They grow well in sunny places with dry, sandy soil. Birds that live in grassy areas eat the berries and seeds of these plants.

Our Thanks to:

Jeffrey Adams for being our 2007 – 2008 Junior Contributor.

Con Edison for its generous funding of this publication.

Leslie Day and Karen Cook for reviewing the articles.

Tree of heaven, Central park

Look It Up!Betty Smith wrote the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943. It is the story of young Francie Nolan, who grows up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1920s. Francie and her family are very poor. They face many challenges. A tree of heaven that grows in their backyard is very important to the family. The book was made into a movie in 1945.

— Lisa Paschall and Leslie Day

each tree of heaven makes many fruits called samaras. each samara is a seed surrounded by a thin wing.

one leaf of the tree of heaven grows as much as two feet long. It has many smaller leaflets on each side of its center vein.

Drawings by Elizabeth Vigil

Tree of HeavenMaybe you have seen a tree of heaven in your neighborhood. Just LOOK AROUND and you might see one. They are very common in New York City. The problem is that the tree of heaven is an invasive species. It is a plant that did not originally grow here. It first came to the united States from China in 1784 and quickly spread across the country. Trees normally compete with each other for room to grow. The tree of heaven grows quickly. This means that native plants such as oak, pine and maple trees have a very hard time growing near it. The tree of heaven is also a very difficult tree to get rid of. If you cut it down, a new tree will grow from the old roots. Many people work to control the spread of the tree of heaven. You can do your part to help by planting native plants instead of an invasive plant like the tree of heaven.

— Jeffrey Adams

Look Around New York City 4

Copyright © 2007New York City Audubon71 West 23 StreetNew York, NY 10010212-691-7483

lanyc@nycaudubon.orgwww.nycaudubon.org

Naola Gersten-Woolf:publisher and Managing editor

Chris rubin: Art Director

Lisa paschall: editor

Cecelia rogers: Banner Designer

Glenn phillips:executive Director