I have been to the High Line a few times before, but I had never noticed how large the population of pollinators was until my last excursion with Melanie. Even though it is early autumn now, insects were buzzing around flowers everywhere, luckily for us. It was clear from the start of our walk down the High Line that the park supported a diverse population of flora and fauna. Pollinators we saw included an array of bees, wasps, birds, flies, other insects and a moth. It was truly interesting to see which bugs liked which flowers. The pollinators clearly had preferences for certain nectars, and some flowers were definitely more popular than others.
The compass plant’s yellow flowers were a big favorite, drawing bumblebees, flies, moths, and wasps all over. Honeybees seemed the most tolerant of any kind of flower, going from asters to [pink flowers I cannot seem to identity] to white wild spurges. We did see other insects and beetles of which we were unsure whether we could label pollinator which are not included here.
I don’t think the High Line is as much of a Rambunctious Garden as I think Marris attempts to describe in her book, but I do see where the two share characteristics. The park is not in a place where plants are supposed to thrive, but we have brought them up unto where the old railroad tracks once were, “intervening” with Nature’s Way. The process has naturally brought more animal life and more plant life as we plant more blooms and people visit. It is very much a garden in the sense that the plants are cared for and monitored. As a public park, the High Line flora are maintained, and the structure of the park makes sure the plants have the right amount of water. However, the High Line is not as much of a hands on project where we introduce species like puzzle pieces from other areas. Plant diversity was high before the High Line became a managed park and caring for those plants is a focus of the High Line project. Besides this, the aim of the High Line is not to recreate an ecosystem, but just help make the previous landscape of the abandoned railway become more appealing and accessible to the public. The plantings here are mostly based on aesthetic value of the bright flowers and that feel of the abandoned railroad, while also keeping the native species as a priority. There is no active introduction of animal species as far as I can tell, and according to the park’s website, 161 of the 210 plants species of the part of the park we traversed are native to New York.
Many of the plants that were self-seeded (those not artificially introduced to that land by humans) before the High Line came to be integrated in the park. The statistics in the Stalter paper show that the High Line environment had really created itself and shown that it was ready to be developed before we realized that we could exploit it for our own interests.
