Himalayan blackberry

Walking along railroad tracks is a pretty cool feeling. It’s also a good place to look for weeds. Active railroad tracks are managed for optimum visibility and fire prevention, which means that trees and shrubs near the tracks are removed creating plenty of open space on either side. Open areas in full sun are ideal places for a wide variety of weed species to grow. Trains passing through can also be sources or dispersal agents of seeds, so there’s a chance that you may see things growing alongside railroad tracks that you don’t often see elsewhere. All this means that railroad tracks in urban areas are great locations to familiarize yourself with your city’s wild urban flora.

I visited a small section of railroad tracks between Kootenai Street and Overland Road in Boise. At one point, this was a pretty active railroad. Passenger trains once moved along these tracks, and the Boise Depot, which is less than a mile from this location, was one of several stops between Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT. Unfortunately, those services ended in 1997 and have yet to resume, despite continued support for bringing passenger rail back to the region. Still, freight trains pass by with some frequency.

Managing weeds along railroad tracks in urban areas can be tricky. There is little else in the way of vegetation to compete with the weeds. The tracks are also adjacent to parks, homes, schools, gardens, and other locations that make herbicide applications complicated. The species of weeds can also vary widely from one mile to the next, so management decisions must also vary. It’s especially important that the ballast directly beneath and on either side of the tracks is kept weed free in order to prevent fires and improve visibility. All of this and more makes weed control along railroad tracks one of the most challenging jobs around. Luckily, for someone that likes to look at weeds, it means there will always be interesting things to see near the tracks, including for example this colony of harvester ants that I came across while identifying weeds. I was happy to see that they were collecting the samaras of Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila), one of several weedy trees in the Treasure Valley.

What follows are a few images of some of the weeds I encountered along the railroad tracks between Kootenai Street and Overland Road, as well as a list of the weeds I was able to identify. The list will grow as I identify the mystery weeds and encounter others that I missed, as is the case with all posts in the Weeds of Boise series.

**Virginia creeper (*Parthenocissus quinquefolia*)**

**Himalayan blackberry (*Rubus bifrons*)**

**kochia seedlings (*Bassia scoparia*)**

Arctium minus (common burdock)
Bassia scoparia (kochia)
Bromus diandrus (ripgut brome)
Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)
Chorispora tenella (blue mustard)
Conium maculatum (poison hemlock)
Convolvulus arvensis (field bindweed)
Cirsium arvense (creeping thistle)
Dactylis glomerata (orchardgrass)
Descurainia sophia (flixweed)
Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian olive)
Epilobium ciliatum (northern willowherb)
Equisetum sp. (horsetail)
Erodium cicutarium (redstem filaree)
Galium aparine (cleavers)
Hedera helix (English ivy)
Hordeum murinum (wild barley)
Lactuca serriola (prickly lettuce)
Lepidium sp. (whitetop)
Lonicera sp. (bush honeysuckle)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Poa bulbosa (bulbous bluegrass)
Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass)
Rubus bifrons (Himalayan blackberry)
Rumex crispus (curly dock)
Secale cereale (feral rye)
Taraxacum officinale (dandelion)
Ulmus pumila (Siberian elm)

Do you live near railroad tracks? What weeds are growing there, and do you feel as cool as I do when you walk the tracks?

The Summer of Weeds is a result of the curiosity and fascination I feel towards weeds. It is also inspired by Peter Del Tredici’s book, Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast, which encouraged me to take a closer look at the weeds that grow in my urban hometown of Boise, Idaho. Del Tredici’s book serves mainly as a field guide for identifying common weeds found in urban areas in the northeast region of the United States. Many of these weeds are found in cities across North America, so the guide is still useful regardless of where you live. Additionally, the book’s 25 page introduction is an excellent overview of how weeds fit in to the ecology of urban areas and an incentive to not only stop and get to know our urban flora but to respect it for its tenacity and durability and its important ecological role.

Excerpts from Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter Del Tredici:

From the Foreword by Steward T. A. Pickett –

If it is to fulfill its potential, the urban wild flora must be better understood and better used. In other words, its functions, not just its categories – native, exotic, invasive, naturalized – must be appreciated by professionals and citizens alike. Understanding should come before judgement when urban wild plants are concerned.

Defining urban wild plants –

The [plants] that fill the vacant spaces between our roads, our homes, and our businesses; take over neglected landscapes; and line the shores of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Some of the plants are native to the region and were present before humans drastically altered the land; some were brought intentionally or unintentionally by people; and some arrived on their own, dispersed by wind, water, or wild animals. They grow and reproduce in the city without being planted or cared for. They are everywhere and yet they are invisible to most people. Given that cities are human creations and that the original vegetation that once grew there has long since disappeared, one could argue that spontaneous plants have become the de facto native vegetation of the city.

Why weeds are problematic in agricultural and horticultural settings, as well as in natural areas, is fairly intuitive. But why are they seen as a problem in urban areas, outside of our parks, yards, and gardens? –

When it comes to spontaneous urban plants, people’s complaints are usually aesthetic (the plants are perceived as ugly signs of blight and neglect) or security related (they shield illicit human activity or provide habitat for vermin). Indeed, the context in which a plant is growing not only determines the label that we put on it but also the positive or negative value that we assign to it.

Regarding urban ecology –

[Cities] have their own distinctive ecology, dominated by the needs of people and driven by socioeconomic rather than biological factors. People welcome other organisms into cities to the extent that they contribute to making the environment a more attractive, more livable, or more profitable place to be; and they vilify as weeds those organisms that flourish without their approval or assistance. Regardless of humans’ preferences, an enormous variety of nonhuman life has managed to crowd into cities to form a cosmopolitan collection of organisms that is every bit as diverse as the human population itself.

To illustrate the point that urban weeds are playing a role in the ecology of our cities, Del Tredici lists the ecological functions of each species featured in the field guide portion of the book. These functions include:

temperature reduction
food and/or habitat for wildlife
erosion control on slopes and disturbed ground
stream and river bank stabilization
nutrient absorption (nitrogen, phosphorous, etc.) in wetlands
soil building on degraded land
tolerance of pollution or contaminated soil
disturbance-adapted colonizer of bare ground

Carbon storage and oxygen production are functions of these plants as well, as they are of all plants; however, as Del Tredici points out, “because [spontaneous urban plants] grow on marginal sites and require no maintenance, [they] are probably providing a greater return in terms of carbon sequestration than many intentionally cultivated species.”

There is much more to say about this “brave new ecology” and the role that urban wild plants play in it. Future posts are in the works. For now, consider this sentiment from Del Tredici’s book: Urban wild plants “are well adapted to the world we have created and, as such, are neither good nor bad – they are us.”

What follows are a few photos of some of the urban wild plants I have encountered in Boise over the last few weeks. These, along with the plants featured in previous Summer of Weeds posts, are a mere fraction of the species that grow wild in my urban hometown. The diversity of weeds alone in urban areas is astounding and should be given more consideration, along with the broader diversity of organisms that exist within our cities.