Assessing the Spontaneous Spread of Climate-Adapted Woody Plants in an Extensively Maintained Collection Garden

Abstract

Climate change may strongly modify the habitat conditions for many woody plant species. Some species could disappear from their natural habitats and become endangered, while others could adapt well to the changed environmental conditions and continue to survive successfully or even proliferate more easily. A similar process can occur within the artificial urban environment as the hitherto popularly planted urban trees may suffer from the extremities of the urban climate. However, among the planted taxa, there are species that spread spontaneously and appear as weeds in extensively managed gardens. In our study, we evaluated the native and non-native species involved in spontaneous spreading in the institutional garden of Buda Arboretum (Budapest) during the COVID-19 period in 2020–2021 when entry was prohibited, and maintenance went on in a restricted, minimal level. We investigated the correlation between spontaneously settling and planted individuals, and then performed multivariate analyses for native and non-native spreading plants for spatial and quantitative data. During our studies, we observed the spontaneous spreading of 114 woody species, of which 38 are native and 76 are non-native. Taking the total number of individuals into account, we found that, in addition to the 2653 woody species planted, a further 7087 spontaneously emerged weeds developed, which creates an additional task in the maintenance.

Ornamental Plants and Urban Gardening

“…Limonium sp. or recretohalophytes are characteristic halophytes that have special structures on their epidermis, such as salt vesicles and salt glands, which allow them coping with salt-rich environments [ 13 ]. During the measurements, the authors used sand and clay as the growing medium and examined the morphological and plant physiological properties of the plants at different salt concentrations.…”

„Mindenmentes” városok?

“…When reading the lists, we find contradictory information in several cases, such as Baccharis halimifolia, where one of the information sheets of the ÁNTSZ says not to plant, and another document says "requires further investigation", so there is no domestic data on its allergenicity [71]. In fact, it cannot be a major allergen source, as it occurs in very small numbers in the country, mainly in collection gardens, where it has been shown not to spread spontaneously either generatively or vegetatively [72,73].…”

“…3). A total of 6 taxa can be considered by the designer, namely Crataegus × lavalleei Valójában nem is lehet, hiszen igen kis egyedszámmal fordul elő az országban, főként gyűjteményes kertekben, ahol már bizonyították, hogy sem generatív, sem vegetatív úton spontán nem terjed [72,73].…”