The Spicebush is the Bronx’s nominee to be New York City’s official wildflower.
Tuesday marks the last day to vote in the WildflowerNYC, a competition to establish an official wildflower of the Big Apple.
The competition to find a flower to represent the city kicked off in March in line with a greater movement aimed at highlighting the importance of native ecosystems and plants. As part of the contest, one institution in every borough has nominated a plant. To represent the Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) selected the Spicebush.
“The competition is really about choosing native plants,” said James Boyer, New York Botanical Garden’s vice president for children’s education. “The Spicebush is, and would have been a very common understory shrub plant before Hudson sailed down the Hudson River. We just felt like this was a really great representation for what a native forest would have looked like — very similar to what we still have on our 50-acre grounds.”
Part of the uniqueness of the plant comes from its distinct smell, which can be inhaled by crushing the flower. Spicebush blossoms in the spring, but can be found year-round in the Bronx within NYBG’s 50-acre growth forest — where there is a trail called the Spicebush trail, which overlooks the Bronx River, New York City’s only freshwater river.
Preserving and documenting New York’s native flora is an ongoing mission at the Botanical Garden. NYBG, which has been recognized on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1967, launched its Ecoflora community science project in 2016 in an effort to better record and conserve the city’s biodiversity.
For Boyer, nominating Spicebush is part of this ongoing effort to bring awareness to the importance of native flora.
The city has already lost 40% of its native plants because of development, according to the NYC Wildflower Week website. Maintaining native flora is key to preserving existing…
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