Wildflowers: From conserving biodiversity to urban greening—A review

Species-rich herbaceous communities, such as prairies, steppes, meadows and pastures, have a high bio-diversity value. There is considerable interest in the loss of these complex ecosystems and the associatedbiodiversity, due to intensive agriculture, pasture abandonment, pollution, and climate change. Thesehabitats 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 humanactivities in the city and enhance the biotic component. The idea is to revegetate urban degraded soilwith aesthetically pleasing wildflower meadows, while increasing biodiversity, creating a habitat andconserving the local flora, with low management cost. In urban sites seed mixtures containing a highpercentage of native and exotic herbaceous flowering plants have been successfully used. We review thefactors affecting the ecological aspects of species-rich herbaceous communities in disturbed environ-ments and urban landscape design. The review addresses the use of these communities in urban greenareas for recreation, socialization and environmental education.