Just what we need right about now. Take some time for a walk through the Ten Thousand Suns installation down near the east end of the pedestrian bridge on lower South Water Street; it’s good for the soul. This advisory is somewhat time-sensitive, although I suspect the timing of the planting may have been spaced by accident and design. The man behind this project, landscape architect Adam E. Anderson, describes the installation/public park as follows:
Ten Thousand Suns is a summer-long botanical performance in which over 10,000 sunflower seeds have been planted and nurtured over the course of the summer months, on land that until recently sat under a highway, with high compaction, low-organic material, and embedded with toxicity.
Big thanks to Mr. Anderson for this gift to the residents of the city. He and his volunteer crew have done a great job of maintaining the field despite having one of the wettest Julys on record, followed by the most godawful August heat. (More photos at their Facebook page.) Several varieties are on display.
Flower Power: A text plaque within the park states: “Sunflowers are what environmental scientists call hyperaccumulators — plants that have the ability to take up high concentrations of toxic materials in their tissues. They can absorb zinc, copper, and other common pollutants.”
The ability of sunflowers to pull certain radioactive isotopes out of the soil has led to large-scale plantings at the sites of nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Okay, so the science teacher in me loves this, but maybe let’s not eat the seeds?
10,000 Suns, between South Water and South Main Streets, (directions)