ESTABLISHING LOW WATER DEMANDING FLOWER MEADOW WITH PERENNIAL FLOWERS AND PERENNIAL WILD FLOWERS IN NORTH CHINA

A flower meadow is a low maintenance ornamental groundcover in land-scaping practice.
Use of native species can reduce maintenance, keeps good looking and may indicate a path back to nature.
We investigated a wildflower community structure from spring to autumn in subalpine meadows in north and west of Beijing area.
There are about 18 species of wildflowers per m², and the density is about 247/m². The plant community represents five life forms.
Death and regeneration occur frequently in the community.
From spring to summer, competition becomes more intense in horizontal than vertical direction.
The height includes from one to three layers.
A change in vertical direction reduces horizontal competition.
Based on the variation of importance value of plants per square meter, the plant community can be divided into a homogeneous, a gradual change, and a dominant species type.
The design for the flower meadow for the Beijing area followed the results from the analysis of the wildflower community. 32 species of perennial flowers were selected, including 13 native wild flowers.
A seeding rate of 1.57 g/m² can meet the landscape requirements.
Native and exotic plants helped to establish a low water demanding flower meadow, following the characteristics of the Beijing area low-maintenance landscape.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Advances in Ornamentals, Landscape and Urban Horticulture

Yike Gao, Chunshui Wu, Li Binghua, Weilan Bai

natural meadow community, urban landscape, low maintenance

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.937.152