What will the plants of the future cities look like?

Well, very likely a lot of weeds.  Plants that we do not care much for today, plants that we think are ugly, useless, and unworthy, but that are persistent, drought-tolerant, and very good at surviving in harsh environments (and good ones too!).

Peter del Tredici has written an thought-provoking and great essay on The Flora of the Future: Celebrating the Botanical Diversity of Cities on the website the Design Observer. It is well worth a long, good read, especially if you live in an urbanized area or are interested in ecology and evolution. 

He starts off with a dramatic statement:

"The concept of ecological restoration, as developed over the past 20 years, rests on the mistaken assumption that we can somehow bring back past ecosystems by removing invasive species and replanting native species. This overly simplistic view of the world ignores two basic tenets of modern ecology — that environmental stability is an illusion, and that an unpredictable future belongs to the best adapted." (source link)

In short, nothing stays the same, and especially not now when we have changed the world so much when it comes to species distributions, human-built environments, and changing climates.

Read on... it is spot on and explains what is happening to plants in cities, industrial areas, and abandoned lots...

A Texan Turf War

·        Imagine Dallas for a moment. Not the largest metropolitan area with over a million people, but historic Dallas.  I know what you are thinking of  - miles and miles of… turfgrass! Am I right? No?  Well, according to the city planners in Dallas, a nice green lawn is exactly what they had in mind.  A homeowner with a slightly longer view of history has incurred the ire of the Landmark Commission of Junius Heights Historic District for his “historically inappropriate” yard of cacti, yucca, mesquite, agave, and native prairie grasses.

I realize that the city planners want things to look nice – that is, how things looked when they were growing up in the 60’s , 70’s and 80’s – but I have to question the appropriateness of sod in northern Texas.  To begin with, this area was historically covered with mixed prairie: a super diverse mix of grasses, cacti, and yucca. Even if the Landmark commission adheres to a very short view of history, the ecological appropriateness of using dwindling water supplies to support non-native invasive turfgrass seems misguided and foolish. As is the case in many cities in the Southwest, water supply is dwindling, while water demand is skyrocketing. In 2003 the average Dallas citizen used almost 240 gallons of water a day.

 Xeriscaping seems the most appropriate and responsible choice. And prairies can be beautiful! Check out these photos from the largest remnant of pristine tallgrass prairie. Waves of rolling prairie grasses would be a gorgeous addition to suburbia.