Thanks to the project Grow safely – do not support invasive species of the Faculty of Environment of the Czech University of Life Sciences (ČZU) in Prague and its partners, gardeners, nursery teachers, garden and landscape architects and students of horticultural schools met with scientists from various institutions.
The basic rules on which there was consensus were established by the participants of the workshops that took place in Prague and Brno during this April. In the conclusions, the solvers of the two-year project agree that it is necessary to strengthen education towards the horticultural and lay public.
| The workshops were held with the participation of the CZU, the Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Horticulture, the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Botanical Garden and Arboretum of the Mendel University in Brno and Coventry University from Great Britain. The horticultural community was represented by several garden architects, as well as the Association for the Establishment and Maintenance of Greenery, the Society for Gardening and Landscape Design, representatives of the Union of Kindergarteners of the Czech Republic and students from secondary horticulture schools. |
Originally ornamental plants
Invasive species of organisms are one of the main factors threatening biodiversity on a global scale. Scientists point out that a significant number of today’s invasive plant species are originally cultivated ornamental plants that caught fire and began to spread uncontrollably.
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Science and schools
From the point of view of the number of cultivated plants in gardens, this is a very small percentage of species. The main parameters for evaluating invasive spread are the impacts on native communities, ecosystem services, the economy and public health.
“The blanket ban should apply to species from the EU list, such as bolsevník, pajasan or klejicha, and to species that spread very intensively, such as kestrels or ash maple,” state the experts.
For other invasive species, a so-called stratified approach is proposed, i.e. the possibility of use only in a certain type of planting. An example can be the use of acacia or Mediterranean species in inner city areas (intravillan is a collective designation for built-up areas of municipalities, possibly also for areas intended for development – editor’s note). According to the ČZU, for other invasive species, care should be taken when growing, especially in contact with the open landscape, where the species can spread.
At round tables, the project participants discussed how best to solve the problem of the spread of invasive species from gardens.
“The discussants also agreed on the importance of passing on current information from experts to the horticultural professional and lay public, the use of various media for communicating information and the inclusion of the issue of invasive plant behavior in the teaching programs of secondary and university horticultural schools. It was also often mentioned that the proposed solutions should have a recommendatory character,” noted project manager Kateřina Berchová Bímová.
Thanks to support from Norwegian funds, the project made it possible to find a compromise solution to the problem of plant invasions across the professional community. The researchers will use the information obtained from the workshops when creating materials for gardeners, schools and the general public.
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