Meadow-living walls: Creating attractive vertical greenery with meadow seed mixtures – Experiences and recommendations from a three year field trial

Stollberg, Maren; Moser, Gerald M.; Müller, Christoph; Birgelen, Alexander von

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106817

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…There is very little literature on a similar topic. Our study could be most comparable to the work of Stollberg and co-authors [ 18 ]. They used seed mixtures of natural meadow species in the construction of green walls and came up with a lot of useful technical experience.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…In contrast, in the columns of other expositions, the frequency and coverage of A. arenosa were lower, possibly due to the fast coverage effect of other rapidly growing species. M. Stollberg and coauthors [ 18 ] observed a similar trend, where the extinction of dominant species allowed other species to become established. Besides that, their study showed that light is not always the determining factor for plant dominance [ 18 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…M. Stollberg and coauthors [ 18 ] observed a similar trend, where the extinction of dominant species allowed other species to become established. Besides that, their study showed that light is not always the determining factor for plant dominance [ 18 ]. Therefore, in our study, when A. arenosa experienced less competition, shade was no longer a critical factor for this species to grow and complete its vegetation cycle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…It was shown that the removal of the dominant species Bouteloua gracilis from a long-term experimental site increased species diversity, the number of rare species, and the relative abundance of dominant species [ 15 ]. In another study conducted by Stollberg and co-authors [ 18 ], it was observed that species diversity increased after the disappearance of Stachys palustris , G. album , and Galium palustre . This corresponds to our observation that the loss of the initial dominant species in the vertical columns has led to the establishment and dominance of new species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vertical Columns with Sustainable Green Cover: Meadow Plants in Urban Design

Stakelienė

Pašakinskiené

Ložienė

et al. 2023

Plants

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Unique vertical column structures were constructed for the greening of a structure at the Botanical Garden of Vilnius University, in which a plant cover was formed using the turf rolls of semi-natural meadows that were wrapped on 197 columns, with each column consisting of three equal segments. By evaluating the species composition and the abundance of vegetation in the segments of the columns, we studied how this natural cover changes and what its survival potential is. During the five years of observation, 97 plant species were determined in total. Over time, the initial plant species of fertile soils were mostly replaced by ruderal, nitrophilous, and pioneer plants. Out of the 58 original species, 18 disappeared, while 39 new ones emerged. In the vegetation cover on the north exposition of the building, the original species composition declined faster. The most persistent species were ruderal short-lived Conyza canadensis, Melilotus albus, and Urtica dioica, and long-lived Elytrigia repens. As for vegetation classes, the initial plant communities of the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea elatioris vegetation class were partially replaced by the plant communities of the Koelerio-Corynephoretea canescentis and Artemisietea vulgaris classes; however, unformed plant communities finally became prevalent. All directions, including the north, east, south and west, were equally dominated by semi-shade- and semi-light-loving plant species, together with a less abundant representation of light-loving species. Meanwhile, an unexpected establishment of the light-loving annual Arabidopsis arenosa was observed on the least illuminated north exposition. Likewise, the perennial Festuca pratensis, which is particularly resistant to wintering, emerged and spread on all expositions. The vegetation in the vertical columns was dynamic, and the initial plant species significantly diminished in the five years; however, as new species took place, the columns remained sufficiently covered with a green carpet of plants. This study reveals the benefits of using semi-natural meadow turfs in vertical greening of buildings in the harsh climate of a 5b hardiness zone, which is accompanied by distressing climatic fluctuations during the vegetation season.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Vertical Columns with Sustainable Green Cover: Meadow Plants in Urban Design

Stakelienė

Pašakinskiené

Ložienė

et al. 2023

Plants

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“…We have already published parts of this research project in various ways, including two articles with practical advice in German [27,28], an overview of the visual impression of all planting variants [29], and detailed elaborations about both the seeding variants [30] and the planting variants [31].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living Wall Plants Are Affected by and Affect Temperature: How to (not) Measure Plants’ Temperature in a Living Wall Experiment

Stollberg

Birgelen

2023

Sustainability

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Living walls (LWs) are a climate change adaptation strategy for cities, as they have a cooling effect. Previous studies of the cooling effect of LWs were carried out in different climatic zones. These studies differed in their experimental design, or simulated data via models. Plants’ cooling capacity is explained by shading and transpiration, and depends on physical plant parameters, environmental factors, and system-related influences. A three-year-long trial was carried out between 2017 and 2019 at an experimental garden in Geisenheim, Germany. We chose a textile-based LW system with high water demand and plants from a wet/fresh habitat. We assumed that this would achieve high evaporative cooling. The experimental setup included four experimental walls, which were exposed to the north, south, east, and west, respectively. The plant choice was divided into three plant mix variants (Cascade, Ground cover, and Meadow) and a Control with no vegetation. We measured the temperature with sensors and a thermal imaging (IR) camera in different setups. The main results were that the measured vegetation temperature (TV) depends on air temperature (TA), measurement position, plant mix variant, and plant species. We could detect the cooling effect only at a small distance from the LW (microclimatic). Our methodological approaches should be continued in further studies.

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