Native plant establishment on a custom modular living wall system in a humid subtropical climate

Dvorak, Bruce; Yang, Shijia; Menotti, Tess; Pace, Zane; Mehta, Salonee; Ali, Ahmed K.

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127234

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For those greening systems without in-situ irrigation or in dry climate, drought-tolerant plants could be the option. In a humid subtropical climate, some native plants with a high health rating, for example Brunneria Gracilis, Achillea millefolium and Dicoria argentea 79 , are suitable candidates. For a tropical climate, those plants with rapid growth and high percentages of coverage, such as Asystasia Gangetica and Melampodium Divaricatum, could produce greater shade 80 .…”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Beating the Heat: Solution Sets for Developed Cities

Zhao

Sen

Susca

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Beating excessive urban heat calls for a whole-system approach, where several individual mitigation measures have to be implemented together. We assess the use of green walls, green roofs, reflective roofs, thermally efficient buildings, high-efficiency indoor cooling, urban forestry, evaporative pavement, and constructed shade for directly reducing urban heat or indirectly reducing emissions of anthropogenic heat. An ITE-index is proposed to evaluate investment (I), time for implementation (T), and effectiveness (E) of 247 multi-measure solution sets and the 8 individual measures. Solution sets comprising 4-7 different measures are found to have a higher index score and to be more effective for different types of local climate. The ITE-index is a universally useful tool for decision-making for individual cities.

show abstract

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To have better biodiversity, vegetation of multiple species can be used in green systems. However, maintenance could be more demanding in this case as survivability of vegetation of different species vary considerably 79 .…”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beating the Heat: Solution Sets for Developed Cities

Zhao

Sen

Susca

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The development of roots in LWs under greenhouse conditions has been investigated in several studies (Jørgensen et al, 2014a;Jørgensen et al, 2014b;Jørgensen et al, 2018). Other studies have described plants for LWs in other climate zones (Charoenkit and Yiemwattana, 2021;Dvorak et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical plants: Plant design of Living walls – evaluation of 34 perennials in a textile based Living wall over a three years experiment

Stollberg

Birgelen

2023

Front. Hortic.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionUrban green can be complemented by Living walls (LW). Knowledge of LW, including technique or their cooling effects, is well discussed, but little published data on plant diversity, design and development in LWs exists. The plants themselves determine whether LWs achieve their intended benefits. However, LW plants are exposed to extreme conditions such as temperature or drought stress.Material and methodsTherefore, we observed plant development in a textile-based LW (mat) over a three-year experiment under a temperate oceanic climate in the south west of Germany. The aim was to establish higher plant diversity for use in LWs. We chose 34 perennials (shrubs, ferns, grasses, and geophytes) that require high soil moisture. The mat was soil-free and had to be overwatered with a nutrient solution. The perennials were grouped in the plant module “cascade” (tall, hanging plants) and “ground cover” (low-spreading plants). We created four experimental walls exposed to the south, north, west, and east and adapted the plant modules to the lighting conditions of the experiment wall. The modules were pre-cultivated and attached to the experimental walls in a randomised design and repetition of four. We determined the visual attractiveness and additional parameters of individual plants.ResultsWe observed that Tellima grandiflora ‘Rubra’, Waldsteinia ternata, Pachysandra terminalis, and Heuchera Hybride ‘Purple Petticoats’ were the most attractive all year. Ajuga tenorii ‘Mauro’, Alchemilla caucasica, Hosta sieboldii ‘Harry van Trier’, Glechoma hederacea, and Geum coccineum ‘Carlskaer’ showed a nice ornamental effect and flowering during summer. The ferns and Waldsteinia ternata showed delayed growth but nice leaf texture gradually.Discussion and conclusionWe saw differences in winter survival rates depending on minimum temperature in winter. The tested plants developed a special vertical growth form and height. We observed various results at different expositions but found suitable species for each exposition. With these results, we derived a table of plants along with their suitability for LWs and determining conditions.

show abstract

“…These include greater building thermal performance, particularly cooling (Wong et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2013), improvements in thermal comfort and carbon sequestration (Charoenkit and Yiemwattana, 2016), reductions in noise (Wong et al, 2010;Azkorra et al, 2015) and air pollution (Weerakkody et al, 2017), opportunities for localised food production (Nagle et al, 2017;Mårtensson et al, 2014) and improvements to urban hydrology, including grey water reuse (Fowdar et al, 2017). Much of the research into living walls has focussed on plant growth and performance (Riley, 2017), including species across a range of groups and climates (Mårtensson et al, 2014(Mårtensson et al, , 2016Jørgensen et al, 2018;Dvorak et al, 2021) and the potential to support urban biodiversity (Collins et al, 2017;Filazzola et al, 2019). While there have been studies exploring the broader social benefits of living walls (Pérez-Urrestarazu et al, 2017;Bustami et al, 2018), the analysis of their aesthetic values remains a major gap in the literature (Radić et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Living walls are also a useful experimental prototype to examine individual plant performance and different planting designs. Most living wall systems can be adjusted, in terms of irrigation and nutrition, to provide optimum conditions for growing less common species, including native plants (Dvorak et al, 2021) and those with high biodiversity values (Mayrand and Clergeau, 2018). The vertical layout of living walls means that novel plant communities can also be configured under what are fairly uniform conditions, with competition restricted to a few neighbouring plants, with growing conditions that are easy to manipulate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Integration Between Colour Theory and Biodiversity Values in the Design of Living Walls

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Designing green infrastructure in cities requires vegetation that has multiple outcomes and functions, particularly using plants that have both attractive visual or aesthetic features and high biodiversity values. Plantings that have high visual appeal are more highly valued by people and increase their feeling of wellbeing. Increasing biodiversity in cities is one of the major challenges facing urban planning and design. However, balancing biodiversity and aesthetic outcomes in urban planting design is complex, and to date there are few methods that can be used to guide plant selection. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the use of a colour theory framework for planting arrangements to see if we could design vegetation that is highly aesthetic and has high biodiversity. We did this by configuring planting combinations for living walls in Malmö, Sweden, using principles based on Johannes Itten’s colour theories. The plant combinations on each wall were graphically arranged using (1) colour analysis of each plant and (2) design of the plant species into two colour schemes: light-dark colour concept and a complementary colour concept. For each species used in the compositions we created a biodiversity classification, based on its pollination value, “nativeness” and conservation value as a cultivar; and a plant visual quality classification, based on the performance from living walls studies. The graphical colour composition and interlinked biodiversity value were then compared to designs created with randomly selected plant species. The results showed that it is possible to design a living wall based on colour theory without compromising with biodiversity outcomes, namely species richness, pollination and the nativeness of the species. The results also indicate the potential application of this design approach to deliver greater aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment from plantings. While more work is needed, this study has shown that a theoretical colour framework can be a useful tool in designing green infrastructure to improve delivery of both cultural and regulatory ecosystem services.

show abstract

Native plant establishment on a custom modular living wall system in a humid subtropical climate

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

Beating the Heat: Solution Sets for Developed Cities

Beating the Heat: Solution Sets for Developed Cities

Vertical plants: Plant design of Living walls – evaluation of 34 perennials in a textile based Living wall over a three years experiment

Exploring the Integration Between Colour Theory and Biodiversity Values in the Design of Living Walls

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About