I recently released I have become (or have always been) a total ignoramus when it comes to the natural world. Living in our urban world and increasingly digital world its easier to lose touch completely with anything natural in the environment.

So I set out to try and simply pay attention to and notice whatever nature is present in my corner of South East London. London is actually quite rich in plant life, given it is a large city, so is its a great place to start. From just looking you start to notice more and more variety and diversity, even on a boring city street.

With Machine Learning apps for identification like PlantNet it’s easier than ever to instantly identify whatever you are looking at with just a basic phone and no other knowledge.

But why is it a joy?

For me it’s mostly the feeling of connection to where you live. The trees you pass by are no longer random background assets; they have names like Limes, Horse Chestnuts, London Planes, Pin Oaks and Lebanese Cedars. Knowing something in some way brings it closer to you, makes it feel more familiar and personal to yourself.

LondonPlanes

You see why a tree might have been planted in the spot it was.

London Plane trees (a hybrid or the Oriental Plane and a Sycamore) is usually planted to line colonnades and walkways, providing high shade and cooling.

Pin Oaks - an American import - to create striking statement trees with a very ‘correct’ tree shape.

Cherry Trees - for their decorative blossom in spring

Maples - for their spectacular autumn displays of orange and red as the leaves fall.

You see things you didn’t expect

If you asked me if my local park had Pines and Cedar trees a little while ago I would never had said it did - and yet there they are, hidden in plain sight!

Around the entrance way to a beautiful memorial flower garden are planted a copse of Yew trees - a poignant and sombre reminder of death given their long association with graveyards in England.

Seeing the diversity of form of trees

It is a common misconception that trees are a group with a shared common ancestor - like mammals or lizards - but really they are a ‘form’ that many different very unrelated plant species have evolved to fill - an example of convergent evolution.

If you really look at leaves, even the local ones wherever you live, you’ll see an incredible difference in the approach to the same problem - maximise absorption of light when other species are trying to grab the light instead of you. Some leaves are compact, some leave large gaps, some are nothing but thin needle like limbs closely packed.

Seeing all this makes the world seem so much bigger than it did before, that there’s this buried complexity and beauty wherever you look for it.

Field Notes my field notes