This online resource helped document the emergent vegetation of the urban Northeast and illustrate the environmental role which these species could play in creating sustainable urban landscapes.

Teaching Challenge:

The critical question faced by the professionals who design, build, and maintain our urban landscapes is not what plants grew there in the past, but which ones will grow there in the future. The spontaneous vegetation of the urban environment, which flourishes without cultivation, is often marginalized as exotic or invasive. Yet many such species have also come to perform vital ecological functions like water filtration, soil stabilization, and carbon storage.