A Rock Wren was recently located nearby to Philadelphia, and – as is so often the case – there is a rich historic link to be found, connecting our current landscapes to what, and who, was here before:
https://matthewhalley.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/rock-wrens-in-pennsylvania/
Understanding changes through time requires an understanding of what was here before. Biological collections are phenomenal repositories for just that kind of information:
A botanical, horticultural and historical find was recently made in the McLean Library of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society:
On the evening of Thursday the 26th of April, beginning at 7:30PM, the Philadelphia Botanical Club will have its monthly meeting, and Tanya Livshultz (of the Academy of Natural Sciences) and Cindy Skema (of the Morris Arboretum) will talk about city plants, in a lecture titled “Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis: Understanding Urbanization through Plant Specimens”.
For more information, see here: http://darwin.ansp.org/hosted/botany_club/meeting.html
Historic landscapes are filled with recurring ephemera – which can change as time and technique move forward:
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/1how-morris-arboretum-working-extend-cherry-blossom-season
Weaving its way through landscapes and history, the little Passer domesticus has a tale:
For even more, see here:
To read a piece about the Franklinia, and its connection to Philadelphia, see here:
https://matthewhalley.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/the-franklinia-flowers/
