I introduced him already in an earlier post: our hero of this spring is the easy-to-overlook flower called Matricaria discoidea, the pineappleweed.

Pineappleweed along a trail in Zemst, Belgium

We are hunting down populations from all over Belgium to explore differences caused by humans: are the plants growing differently in an urban environment than in a rural one? What about a park in the city, or a little village in a field of green? We know a lot about how animals react to the city: bigger butterflies, smaller spiders, birds singing higher, lizards with longer legs… We hope that our little friend will be generous in providing answers on such questions for the plant world as well.

Zemst in early summer, an oase of greenness in a sea of concrete

This time I went to the greenness of Zemst, between Antwerp and Brussels. There, we can still find some nice rural areas amidst all the concrete of the heavily populated center of Flanders.