Park interpretive signage
A new collaboration between our Parks and Arts & Creative Industries teams aims to highlight plant and animal presences in local natural spaces by hiring local artists to create a series of visual profiles. Look for interpretive signs featuring these original artworks and information about species and natural processes that share parklands with all of us.
On this page:
Yellow pond lily and chimney crayfish were chosen to showcase the hidden life of Westheights' wetlands and ponds. Both species are indicators of healthy ecosystems and demonstrate remarkable adaptations to their environments. From the lily's role in supporting aquatic life to the crayfish's impressive underground engineering, these species help reveal the ecological processes that make this natural area unique and encourage visitors to notice the extraordinary wildlife that often goes unseen.
Artworks by Hashveenah Manoharan
Hashveenah Manoharan is an ecologist, arborist and artist who works closely with plants and wildlife across Ontario. Hashveenah uses her art practice to slow down and show attentiveness to the nature she works with. She is interested in highlighting overlooked and often uncharismatic flora and fauna, and uses illustration to tell forgotten stories about nature. Her work explores ecological identity, placemaking and how scientific illustration can be used to tell cultural stories. Her nature illustrations have received a national David Suzuki Foundation Rewilding Arts Prize and have been featured by the Canadian Museum of Nature and various galleries in Ontario. Hashveenah has held artist residencies with the City of Toronto and Parks Canada.
Yellow Pond Lilies
From spring to fall, these cup-shaped flowers open partially in mornings and close at night. Their broad, heart-shaped leaves maximize photosynthesis and give shade and shelter to fish and insects, helping to maintain a balanced environment.
Yellow pond lilies have spongy rhizomes that anchor them into the pond’s muddy bottom. Historically, Indigenous Peoples boiled or roasted these starchy rootstocks for food.
A kettle pond forms when a chunk of glacial ice melts and leaves a shallow dip in the ground. Over time, this dip fills with water and can support unique plants and wildlife.
Find out more about yellow pond lilies at this iNaturalist listing or this Minnesota field guide page.
Chimney Crayfish
These small, burrowing creatures build little mud towers or “chimneys” near wet areas. Digger crayfish help loosen or aerate clay and soil, which supports plant growth. Their presence indicates clean soil and healthy water.
Extensive burrowing in wetlands, creek beds, ditches or dry ground can reach the water table, often more than a metre underground – amazing for a 6 to 8 cm creature.
These resilient species burrow intricate tunnels and chimneys in mud, visible above the ground. This behaviour helps them survive far from permanent water sources.
Dig deep into extensive details with this Guide to Ontario’s Crayfishes.
Chimney crayfish and yellow pond lilies also share several other interesting commonalities:
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Adaptability: Both species are highly adaptable. Chimney crayfish can live in various environments, including urban parks, while yellow pond lilies can thrive in different water bodies, from ponds to slow-moving streams.
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Indicator species: The presence of both species can indicate a healthy environment. Chimney crayfish require clean water and soil to thrive, and yellow pond lilies flourish in relatively unpolluted water.
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Aesthetic value: Both add unique visual elements to their habitats. The mud chimneys of crayfish are distinctive structures in wet areas, while the bright yellow flowers of the pond lilies enhance the beauty of aquatic landscapes.
Monarch butterfly and black elderberry were chosen to tell a story of connection, movement and renewal. Monarchs depend on healthy habitats throughout their extraordinary migration, while elderberries provide food and shelter for pollinators, birds and other wildlife. Together, these species demonstrate the interconnected relationships that support biodiversity and help make Lakeside Park a vibrant natural area.
Artworks by Kruti Patel
Kruti Patel is a Kitchener-based nature illustrator whose work reflects her experiences and curiosity in wild places through self-directed walks. Through careful observations and referencing research, her illustrations explore mostly local biodiversity and ecosystems in the hope of building reverence for fellow beings and the land that nurtures all. She creates detailed artwork using watercolours, gouache, digital media and at times linocut printing.
When not outdoors, you can find her handcrafting illustrated stationery that literally and figuratively binds nature stories, science and art. She finds meaning and joy in exchanging dialogues and making conversation about the same with her local community at art markets and everywhere else under the sun.
Monarch Butterfly
In late spring, monarchs lay eggs on milkweed in meadows or parks. Within days, caterpillars hatch and feed, growing quickly. By early summer, they form chrysalises and transform into butterflies. Most adults live for a few weeks, supporting plants as pollinators.
Late-summer monarchs – the super generation – fly thousands of kilometers to Mexico, overwinter there, then journey back in spring. Their offspring return to regenerate the cycle.
During their transition from egg to larva to pupa to butterfly, monarchs shed their skin five times in the caterpillar stage and can extend their length by 20 times in that growth spurt.
Discover more about the amazing monarch butterfly through this Ontario Nature blog post or this Monarch Milkweed Project blog post.
Black Elderberry
This native shrub grows rapidly in moist, fertile soils and often along streambanks, wetlands and forest edges. Elderberry plants can reach 12 feet tall, producing clusters of large fragrant white flowers and dark purple berries in late summer, plus its root system helps stabilize soil.
The berries and flowers are used by people for culinary and medicinal purposes, whether in syrups or baked goods or as a preventative tea to alleviate cold and flu symptoms. Do not eat raw elderberries.
Native solitary bees (such as mason or leafcutter) lay eggs in hollow plant stems. Elderberry’s dense foliage offers shelter and nesting habitat, and songbirds prize its nutrient-rich berries.
Check out the Northern Ontario Plant Database’s elderberry profile page for photos and species details.
Decaying logs and white pine were chosen to highlight how forests grow, adapt and renew themselves over time. While white pines provide shelter, food and habitat for many species, decaying wood supports insects, fungi, wildlife and new plant growth. Together, they reveal the layered relationships that keep forests healthy and resilient, encouraging visitors to look beyond individual trees and appreciate the whole ecosystem.
Artworks by Lee Angold
Lee Angold is a Kitchener-Waterloo-based botanical artist and scientific communicator who loves to learn and teach others about the natural world. Lee’s art celebrates the vibrance and diversity of plants and the natural world through bold and precise watercolour and ink illustrations. Lee is a disabled, queer visual artist of Brazilian-Ukrainian-Jewish culture who values inclusive, accessible and community-oriented creative work and is deeply committed to giving back to their artistic community, in part as founder of the KW Artists Co-op.
Old wood is new life
Decaying logs are essential in forest ecosystems. As they break down, logs recycle nutrients into the soil, often serving as nurse logs that can create ideal growing conditions for tree seedlings and other plants. They also support fungi networks that can boost forest resilience.
Fallen limbs, twigs, roots and leaf litter can serve as great habitat or building materials that can become shelter and breeding grounds for insects, amphibians and small mammals.
A standing dead tree, also known as a snag, offers nesting sites for birds or bats, shelter for mammals and food for insects. As they decay, they also support fungi and nutrient recycling.
Explore scientific research into “Ecosystem Processes Related to Wood Decay” on the USDA website.
White Pine
Fragrant evergreen canopies add year-round cover that helps regulate forest temperatures and moisture. White pines stabilize soil, store carbon and keep mixed hardwood forests healthy, including offering shelter and food for many birds, mammals and insects.
Their needles are fine and soft to touch. White pines are easy to identify because they grow needles in bunches of five – the five letters in the word “white” can help recall this feature.
Eastern white pine is one of the tallest trees in our forests, reaching 20 to 40 metres tall with trunks up to 140cm in diameter, and shaping light conditions for various plants below.
Learn more about Eastern white pine on this webpage of the Ontario government’s tree atlas.
Land acknowledgement
The City of Kitchener is situated on the traditional territory of the Chonnonton, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee Peoples. We recognize our responsibility to act as stewards for the land and honour the original caretakers who came before us. Our community is enriched by the enduring knowledge and deep-rooted traditions of the diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples who live in Kitchener today.