Carly Still had been working as a gardener in the Hudson Valley when she decided to move to the city 13 years ago.
She happened onto a part-time position at the Met Cloisters, in Upper Manhattan, where she encountered many plants for the first time — ones with curious common names like skirret, weld and costmary — and others that she knew too well, or thought she did.
Among the familiar ones were several that she had removed whenever she came upon them in her old job.
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), for example, is tricky to garden around in cultivated areas, as anyone who has accidentally grabbed a handful while weeding or brushed bare skin against it will attest.
She also recognized greater burdock (Arctium lappa), broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) and even some dandelions in the Bonnefont Cloister Herb Garden, one of three main gardens at the museum of medieval art that opened in 1938 as a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Persons:
Carly Still, —
Organizations:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Locations:
Hudson, Upper Manhattan