The Botanical City

Book excerpt: Roadside 'weeds' and other routinely overlooked aspects of urban nature provide a fascinating glimpse into the complex global ecologies and new cultures of nature emerging across the world. This unique collection of essays explores the botanical dimensions of urban space, ranging from scientific efforts to understand the distinctive dynamics of urban flora to the way spontaneous vegetation has inspired artists and writers. The book comprises five thematic sections: histories and taxonomies, botanising the asphalt, the art of urban flora, experiments in non-design, and cartographic imaginations. The essays explore developments in Berlin, London, Lahore, and many other cities, as well as more philosophical reflections on the meaning of urban nature under the putative shift to the Anthropocene. 100 colour images