‘Wild growth’ is the new word in the Dikke van Dale, this way Amsterdam will become greener!
In the past we used to flower the weeds, but nowadays more people enjoy the wild growth of wild plants and plants and that is why botanist Ton Denters from Amsterdam has included ‘wild growth’ for years. And Ton is not alone; more people would rather have a sidewalk with wildflowers than a kale street. That is why, since this year, the word wanted growth has been in the Dikke van Dale!
“It is proof of recognition,” says Ton Denters when we walk around the Amsterdam Staatsliedenbuurt. The author of the Urban Flora of the Low Countries has been a specialist and lover of urban plants for decades. “Look, this yellow wallflower is the wild variant of the purple one that you can buy in the garden center. The purple has escaped from gardens and we see more often on the street these days. I call that a garden flea.”
A little further on, small purple flowers have found a safe place under a shrub that has fallen crooked from a gable garden, thus providing a safe place against pedestrians. “You see that the branches of that hibiscus extend protectively over those little campanulas. They also came through garden centers once. But the campanula no longer needs a garden. It does well in the grout between the stones.” A resident looks over his balcony with us and lets us know that he thinks it is wonderful, all those flowering ‘weeds’. “My wife likes it clean. We’ll have a piece of park there.”
food flowers
Many wild urban plants originally from southern regions. “Because they are well adapted to dry and warm places there, they can survive well in the city where many native plants die.”
She not only adapts well to the Dutch conditions. The Dutch nature does that too! “Look how many bees are attracted to those flowers! These are wild bees that often find more different food flowers in the city than in the countryside. That is why herb-based products are so important, they contribute to biodiversity. we like to be there; hence the word wanted growth.”