Hi, I’m Dani. I’m excited to be back in school to write, research and make art at the intersection of land, liberation, queerness, and craft. Outside of school, I study and teach about plant medicine, ecology, and land-based art. Here’s me with one of my fave plants, mugwort =]
Make a Kilometre
For this project, I conducted a plant species index of every plant I could discern in one kilometre of urban green space.
I live near the Eramosa River Trail, a foot/bike path that runs along the Eramosa River between Victoria Road Park and the Gosling Bridge. I used Google Maps to map out exactly a kilometre of the trail from the end of my street to a nearby park.
I walked this kilometre in each direction on Sunday, January 11th from 3-4:30 pm, taking notes on the notes app on my phone. It was interesting to rely exclusively on stems, bark, seedpods and dried leaves as ID features instead of foliage and flowers.
Species list, heading west:
Highbush cranberry
Crack willow
Manitoba maple
Vitis spp. (wild grape)
Canada goldenrod
Cup plant
Bittersweet nightshade
Red oak
Burdock
Pagoda dogwood
Rosa multiflora.
Eastern white cedar
Tamarack
Mystery maple
Motherwort <3
Red maple
White spruce
Black cherry
White pine
Clematis
Buttercup
Zigzag goldenrod
Mystery grass 1
Mullein
Bull thistle
Mystery viburnum
Rumex spp. (dock)
Black raspberry
American basswood
Ninebark
Japanese barberry
Plantain
Mystery grass 2
Wild currant
Wild cucumber
Buckthorn
Aster
Heading east:
Red cedar
Staghorn sumac
Chicory
Queen Anne’s lace
Catnip
Red osier dogwood
Canada yew
White ash
Teasel
Mystery spiky tree
Black walnut
Total: 48