Plants & Pollution: A Botanist’s Guide to Surviving Medan’s Skies

medan hasn’t been kind to my ferns lately. woke up yesterday to that weird green haze again, like the sky swallowed a compost heap and forgot to spit it out. i’m not even mad-it’s kind of poetic, in a fatalistic way. but real talk? my Monstera deliciosa is throwing a fit. leaves crisped up like they’re trying to tell me something. guess they’re right. medan’s air quality is a public health crisis, and nobody’s flipping the script.

last year, i read a study that slapped me: 89% of residents here report chronic respiratory issues. that’s not a bad stat-it’s a scream. the worst part? it’s not just the smog from the indonesian archipelago’s endless traffic or the nearby pulp mills. even the kota singkal neighborhood, where everyone parks their dirt bikes in alleyways, adds to the toxic bouquet. i’ve seen kids here skip school when the aqhi hits 150+. who’s their pediatrician? a fan of slow-motion asphyxiation?

real talk about living here as a plant geek (andfuture parent of increasingly dramatic houseplants). first, forget what you know about air purifiers. locals call them alat pembersih udara, but they’re about as effective as a screensaver in a smoke-filled room. one dude i met-said his name was budi, but he also smelled like industrial runoff-swear by these weird contraptions called gembok udara. he claimed it helped him sleep better. asked him what’s better? he said, ‘kasi aku makan kerupukiras every night to detox.’ sure, okay. kerupukirasa are beetroot crisps, right? that’s his detox plan. y’think i’m kidding? no, i’ve seen it with my own eyes.

here’s a data dump for ya: medan’s average rent for a 1-bedroom? 2,500,000 rupiah/month (~$170). but good luck finding something near the airport that doesn’t have a moldy bathroom. co-working spaces? 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. if you’re a digital nomad or some crypto alien looking to mine memes, congrats!

i asked a farmer at the pasaranyar market about the air. he spat and said, ‘the winds carry straight from sumatra. we call it angin jawa.’ classic. like the jawa spice rack in his shop.

neighbors here? older couples who talk about the good old days when the air was clearer? they’re like ghosts haunting the smog. i overheard them gossiping about the ‘velopan iris’ that bloomed in 2015-the last time the river wasn’t on fire. some dude named pak mimin said he planted it to ‘absorb the toxins.’ poetic rebellion? or just stubbornness? hard to tell.

don’t get me started on the job market. medan’s the logistics capital, right? yeah, terra surgan, andtered by mega millions in shipping tycoons. but even the sweetest shipping job? burning lungs. i heard a delivery truck driver say he’d quit if the aqhi dropped below 200. ‘aight, fine,’ he shrugged. ‘but i still need to pay rent for that 10th story apartment in teras rianti. got a view of the highway.’

props to the city’s few botanists. there’s this gutanoma who runs a nursery in pari island. he taught me to grow gliricidia seeds-supposed to clean the air but hate yielded edible beans. survival tweaks. the city runs on cynicism, but i’ll keep planting. maybe someday a grove of medan will breathe again. till then, my plants know more about this place than i do.

oops, tangent. sorry, medan. i just really miss my sedum.

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