The amazing flowers growing in pavement cracks and why you shouldn’t pass them by

By Nienke Beets, PhD Candidate, Botany and Science Communication, Leiden University

In spring and summer flowers pop up spontaneously in lawns, playgrounds, fields and even cracks in the pavement. But what do you see: weeds or wildflowers?

You might feel a little frustrated when you see wildflowers growing in the street. Why are they thriving while it can be a struggle to get garden flowers to bloom? The simple answer is that they are wild.

For millions of years, they had to make do with the sun, soil and rain nature provided. A windblown seed will land somewhere and try to germinate, but if the conditions are wrong it will not survive long. So many wildflowers…

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