The Role of Ecologically Based Vegetation in Urban Infrastructure — A New Opportunity for the Nursery and Seed Industry in China

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between policies of increasing green infrastructure in cities and the development of planting designs that will allow new vegetation to be interesting and attractive, while fulfilling ecological requirements. The challenge is to maintain a balance between beauty and function, which in the past, have sometimes been seen as mutually exclusive. One key problem in applying vegetative infrastructure to Chinese cities is that the nursery infrastructure, needed to supply cities with both native and non-native plants, is poorly developed. There is a significant nursery industry in China, but it is focused on growing a relatively limited palette of “everywhere” plants, rather than reflecting the regional diversity of native Chinese plants or plants that have specific ecological function, such as floodable or drought tolerate vegetation. Hence, there is a pressing need to initiate research to develop a wildflower seed industry, to develop a large volume of good quality to supply the nursery industry and sell for direct planting. Increasing the seed industry will require a regionalized research effort to identify and collect founder seed in wild habitats that have a high potential for urban use, understand seed germination and emergence, and will involve companies in commercial production to make it available to the wider market of landscape professional.

Keywords

Green infrastructure / Ecological Landscape / Policy / Herbaceous Plants / Seed Industry

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press