Welcome to Planted!

Hello! I am Katherine, a graduate student in anthropology, new to my 30s, and fairly new to New York City. A transplanted species, native to Texas, I traded the Lone Star for the Empire State in 2015 to pursue my doctorate at Stony Brook University, in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, or IDPAS.

My research interests concern the extent to which animal communities can persist in human environments: what happens as human populations 'creep' into wild spaces? How adaptable are species to this change? What interests might animal and human communities share, and are there any opportunities for conservation in human landscapes?

For my dissertation, answering these questions involves studying the distribution of lemur species and other small mammals across an agroforest landscape in southeastern Madagascar. There, lemurs may be found close to rice fields, lychee trees, and people's homes, all surrounded by a mix of native Malagasy and introduced plant species.

The possibilities to learn about Madagascar's endemic flora there are practically limitless. I love learning their names and function as my team and I work together on data collection: we encounter the towering bararatra (Gaertnera phyllostachya), the thorny fantsy (Carissa sp.), and ever-persistent, invasive mazambody (Clidemia hirta), the last closely associated with human disturbance.

You know what I don't know much about though? The plants outside the window of my New York apartment, plants that may prove just as interesting as those dotting the fields and forests of my Malagasy home. With COVID-19 causing all international research to come to a (momentary) grinding halt, I have time to get to know my, shall we say, more photosynthetic neighbors. What's the story behind the plant species immortalized by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Where does the Rockefeller Christmas tree come from? What the heck is that shrub by the laundromat? I am so excited to use this blog to discover the science and stories of the plants of NYC.

Part personal blog, part field and tourists' guide, I hope we can learn here, together, about the biodiversity to be found just a few steps outside my front door.

Now what's outside of yours?

Image Credit
Planted Header image: Utsman Media on Unsplash
Ivy: Victoria Strukovskaya on Unsplash
NYC Skyline: Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

All other images are my own.