This work is a web-based field guide for listeners to acquaint themselves with non-native plants commonly found in California. While the 23 featured plants are located across Descanso Gardens’ grounds, they can just as easily be found across Southern California. Each plant is performed with an anthropomorphized narrative, channeling its unique history and experience in arriving and settling in California. These “alien-familiars”, including palm trees, succulents and thistles, arrived primarily as a result of human activity. These are the stories of generations of migrants. These plants offer us a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical, highlighting the simultaneous historical and cultural nature of flora. Our landscape tells the story of colonization, migration, borders, citizenship, belonging, and otherness. 

Learn more about the full project and listen to stories at
JennyYurshansky.com

This work is a web-based field guide for listeners to acquaint themselves with non-native plants commonly found in California. While the 23 featured plants are located across Descanso Gardens’ grounds, they can just as easily be found across Southern California. Each plant is performed with an anthropomorphized narrative, channeling its unique history and experience in arriving and settling in California. These “alien-familiars”, including palm trees, succulents and thistles, arrived primarily as a result of human activity. These are the stories of generations of migrants. These plants offer us a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical, highlighting the simultaneous historical and cultural nature of flora. Our landscape tells the story of colonization, migration, borders, citizenship, belonging, and otherness. 

Learn more about the full project and listen to stories at
JennyYurshansky.com

This work is a web-based field guide for listeners to acquaint themselves with non-native plants commonly found in California. While the 23 featured plants are located across Descanso Gardens’ grounds, they can just as easily be found across Southern California. Each plant is performed with an anthropomorphized narrative, channeling its unique history and experience in arriving and settling in California. These “alien-familiars”, including palm trees, succulents and thistles, arrived primarily as a result of human activity. These are the stories of generations of migrants. These plants offer us a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical, highlighting the simultaneous historical and cultural nature of flora. Our landscape tells the story of colonization, migration, borders, citizenship, belonging, and otherness. 

Learn more about the full project and listen to stories at JennyYurshansky.com

This work is a web-based field guide for listeners to acquaint themselves with non-native plants commonly found in California. While the 23 featured plants are located across Descanso Gardens’ grounds, they can just as easily be found across Southern California. Each plant is performed with an anthropomorphized narrative, channeling its unique history and experience in arriving and settling in California. These “alien-familiars”, including palm trees, succulents and thistles, arrived primarily as a result of human activity. These are the stories of generations of migrants. These plants offer us a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical, highlighting the simultaneous historical and cultural nature of flora. Our landscape tells the story of colonization, migration, borders, citizenship, belonging, and otherness. 

Learn more about the full project and listen to stories at JennyYurshansky.com

This work is a web-based field guide for listeners to acquaint themselves with non-native plants commonly found in California. While the 23 featured plants are located across Descanso Gardens’ grounds, they can just as easily be found across Southern California. Each plant is performed with an anthropomorphized narrative, channeling its unique history and experience in arriving and settling in California. These “alien-familiars”, including palm trees, succulents and thistles, arrived primarily as a result of human activity. These are the stories of generations of migrants. These plants offer us a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical, highlighting the simultaneous historical and cultural nature of flora. Our landscape tells the story of colonization, migration, borders, citizenship, belonging, and otherness. 

Learn more about the full project and listen to stories at JennyYurshansky.com