Encroachment of the wild

Southwest side of an old tree, Dishman parking lot. (SOOC)

WILD is today's DDW challenge topic.

It may seem hard to find wild things in a big city, but actually they're everywhere. Take this tree, for instance. It was planted by the City of Portland. But where did the lichens and mosses come from? They just showed up out of the wild. Even 'volunteer' plants in a city garden have a wild side. Were they seeded by the wind and watered by the rain? Were they brought from a distance in the gut of a bird or clinging to the fur of a cat?

Possibly the first book of photographs I purchased was Eliot Porter's 1962 book, "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World," with quotes by Henry David Thoreau. The title still makes me smile. It makes me feel like being a little wild myself.