Later this summer, Pioneer Works will host walks around the neighboring Red Hook area, where participants can expect to see a kind of Ophelia's litany of the shipping trade: jimsonweed from Mexico, perhaps, or
Asiatic dayflower hailing from East and Southeast Asia, and of course the aforementioned Japanese knotweed.
Instead of forest floors carpeted by picturesque arrays of trout lily or bloodroot, we have dense and oppressive monocultures of the ubiquitous garlic mustard, smartweed,
Asiatic dayflower and Japanese stilt grass.
A little later in the season, one can find persistent greens like tangy sorrel; spicy cress;
Asiatic dayflower; and succulent, paddle-shaped purslane growing in lawns not laced with pesticides through the summer.
Alien plants such as porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and
Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis) have run rampant in meadows throughout the city, making it virtually impossible for native species to keep a toe-hold.
