Mysterious chalk writings have appeared on the sidewalks of this city in southwestern France. Behind this project is a botanist. His goal: Drawing attention to the wild plants that grow through the asphalt. Brut nature followed him.
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00:00This is the strawberry of India, a small plant that we will find on the sidewalks here in Toulouse.
00:09For everyone, it is a bad herb. In fact, it is a plant whose fruits are edible.
00:14I suggest that we go and discover all these plants that live on the sidewalks.
01:00Parieter de Judée
01:08Parieter de Judée comes from Pared, the wall.
01:12Because it is a plant that has as a favorite habitat the old walls.
01:16And de Judée is Pascal Origines.
01:18It originates from a region close to Palestine.
01:22Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, Syria.
01:24The fact of marking like that for us is a pedagogical role.
01:27And a role of awareness.
01:29It is also to show that all those living next to which we pass, we can also respect them.
01:34Because when we see the places where it grows, we say to ourselves, it's pretty impressive.
01:38We can at least respect that.
01:40We always protect a little better what we know.
01:43It's true, from the moment we name something, we give it an existence.
01:47And it's unfortunate, but it's true that this existence, this name,
01:50it allows us to show that this plant has a name, it has a history, it has a use.
01:55It has evolved, it may also be related to animals.
01:58There may be birds that come and feed on its seeds.
02:01When we talk about all the falls of bird and insect populations,
02:04all these plants, which are the basis of food chains,
02:06they have a crucial importance, especially in urban areas.
02:09Like Toulouse, for example, or Paris.
02:11In short, all the big cities that tend to expand,
02:14that forget to reserve spaces for flora and fauna.
02:18Being a citizen and loving plants,
02:21I was interested in things that are quite close to my workplace,
02:25my place of residence.
02:26These are the plants that we will find on the walls.
02:29All these little landscapes that are super pretty.
02:31Moreover, when you look closely,
02:33we have small foam cushions like that.
02:36And inside, with a little imagination,
02:39you can see that there is a lot of vegetation.
02:43And inside, with a little imagination,
02:46you are thinking of tiny animals
02:49that are sowing all this.
02:51And for them, it's real forests.
02:52And it's the case, in fact.
02:53Because there is vegetation,
02:54but there are also very small animals,
02:55colomboles, small hemipteres,
02:57that will nest in there.
02:58And for whom, this kind of vegetation
03:01is enough to have a complete development.
03:09So here we have a virgin vineyard.
03:12Everyone knows the virgin vineyard.
03:13It is a vine that will dress all the walls.
03:15And this is exactly the mode of development of plants in Toulouse,
03:18or in the cities.
03:19That is to say that the seed germinated here,
03:21at the bottom of this wire box.
03:24And the plant follows, in its development,
03:28this slightly protected place.
03:43It's something compulsive, in fact.
03:45I can't help but look at the plants.
03:48Sometimes I even go to the cannibals.
03:50Here, for example, that's great.
03:52So this is a gutter bath.
03:54And in this gutter bath, there are lots of...
03:56How does it make a hole?
03:58It's like in nature.
03:59It acts like in nature.
04:00This hole is filled with water and sediment.
04:03And we have lots of seeds.
04:05So these are charm seeds.
04:07So all this there.
04:10There are not just seeds.
04:11There are hair, everything, dog hair.
04:13So there are charm leaves.
04:14And these are charm seeds.
04:16And so these seeds...
04:17So we have them here.
04:19These seeds are quite able to germinate here.
04:21If no one cleans this cannibal,
04:24the seed will germinate,
04:26and small trees will be able to grow.
04:28So even that is interesting to look at.
04:30Sometimes we look if there are no plants.
04:32Here, for example, here, in this gap between...
04:34Here is the junction point,
04:35a dilation between two plates of soil.
04:37We have a whole procession of plants.
04:39So here, everything is germinating.
04:41It has been raining for a few weeks.
04:43So here we have lots of seeds.
04:45Here we have...
04:46This is the Boursa Pasteur.
04:48This is a small spring grass.
04:50There is loxalis.
04:51There is a pakorette.
04:53So if we let the trees grow,
04:55we would have a little bit everywhere.
04:57Every time there is a crack,
04:59a cannibal, a piece of land,
05:01seeds germinate.
05:02And among these seeds, there are a lot of trees,
05:04because there are a lot of birds
05:06that carry the tree seeds.
05:08We would have an urban forest,
05:09we would have a city forest.
05:17It is in this kind of place
05:19that we will find super biodiversity corners.
05:22It's great, it's the jungle.
05:24It's exactly what the city could look like
05:26if we abandoned it a little bit.
05:28Because here we had a surface that was completely mineralized,
05:31with pebbles, concrete, a little bit of everything,
05:34which is a little abandoned today,
05:36in fact, even very abandoned.
05:38And we can see very well that the plant
05:40has completely abandoned the jungle.
05:42It has completely abandoned the forest.
05:44It has completely abandoned the forest.
05:46It has completely abandoned the forest.
05:48It has completely abandoned the forest.
05:50It has completely covered everything.
05:52At the limit, we almost no longer see the mineral on the ground.
05:55We see more green today than gray.
06:02All of these are only wild plants.
06:04That is to say, there was nothing to plant here.
06:06Except maybe these two,
06:08these two translucent holes.
06:09We can see that they frame this large vase.
06:12But on the ground, we have chelidoine.
06:15This is a great medicinal plant.
06:17It is a plant that makes a yellow, corrosive latex.
06:21So this latex, when we put it on,
06:23when we have a worm, we put it on.
06:26And where we put the yellow latex,
06:28inside it is caustic,
06:30it will corrode the worm.
06:33There are a lot of animals that live here.
06:35It is certain, already, a lot of birds.
06:37Because all these little fruits,
06:39truene, apricots,
06:41these are the fruits that will be consumed by the birds.
06:44And then, at the time of flowering,
06:46there are insects.
06:47When the insects fly over the cities,
06:49they will look for these points of vegetation
06:51because they will be able to find food.
06:53So either flowers to eat nectar,
06:55or leaves for the butterflies to lay their eggs
06:59and so that the caterpillars can eat.
07:01So these little insects,
07:03they will also attract birds that are insectivores.
07:06And there is a whole life that will be created.
07:08In fact, in a square meter of vegetation,
07:11there can be several dozen animal species that develop.
07:14And besides, it gave rise to an interesting initiative
07:17that I saw not too long ago.
07:19It is an initiative called
07:21A Square Meter for Biodiversity.
07:23And it's great,
07:25everyone at home can protect
07:27even a very small surface,
07:29even a square meter,
07:30where we let it grow completely anarchically.
07:33It can host a staggering amount of biodiversity.
07:36You don't need much in nature for it to develop,
07:38for it to live.
07:39You just have to let it express itself a little bit.
07:44A SQUARE METER FOR BIODIVERSITY