Jessica Urbanowski
The habitat I have chosen is parks and play grounds at school. This habitat has
indeed been influenced by humans. All the parks I have been too as well as play
grounds, have been replanted with regular "lawn grasses" instead of
the native grasses. I would bet that these play areas are not heavily treated
with chemicals or would at least hope not. I think parents and pet owners would
have a problem with heavy herbicide use. When I was in grade school we did have
one day every spring that they would spray for the dandelions and we
weren't allowed on the grass, but I have not seen any notices of such things
recently. Even with the use of the dandelion spray, they would go crazy every
year on the playground and I bet they still do. This is because kids love to
pick them and help scatter their seeds by blowing them all over. A park that I
was at last summer in a smaller town was starting to be over come by cockleburs.
I figure this had to do with the large number of dogs that would run there and
scatter the seeds. The constant mowing of these areas must help spread the seeds
and at the same time detour some weed species from growing there. The weed
species that grow in parks and play grounds have to be very resilant to things
like being trampled by kids and dogs. A very popular place that I have noticed
for dandelions at parks are right up next to park shelters and rest room areas.
More than likely this is due to the seeds falling down in the cracks in the side
walks along such buildings and besides there is very little disturbance there.
Some play grounds that I have seen are composed largely not of grass but of sand
or gravel. In this case I have seen dandelions that have adapted just fine to
growing in such material. One last note, since these habitats are not widely
cultivated the number of weeds is greatly reduced. This might just be the best
form of non-toxic weed control in such a busy and well maintaned area.
