Wildflowers: From conserving biodiversity to urban greening – A review.

Species-rich herbaceous communities, such as prairies, steppes, meadows and pastures, have a high biodiversity value. There is considerable interest in the loss of these complex ecosystems and the associated biodiversity, due to intensive agriculture, pasture abandonment, pollution, and climate change. These habitats can constitute models, in terms of landscape management and plant community composition, that can be successfully duplicated in anthropized areas in order to mitigate the adverse effects of human activities in the city and enhance the biotic component. The idea is to revegetate urban degraded soil with aesthetically pleasing wildflower meadows, while increasing biodiversity, creating a habitat and conserving the local flora, with low management cost. In urban sites seed mixtures containing a high percentage of native and exotic herbaceous flowering plants have been successfully used. We review the factors affecting the ecological aspects of species-rich herbaceous communities in disturbed environments and urban landscape design. The review addresses the use of these communities in urban green areas for recreation, socialization and environmental education.