SPYROS GERAVELIS LANDSCAPE DESIGN

NATIVE PLANTS IN URBAN GREEN SPACES

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            Today, more than ever, our cities are being tested by climate change, with heatwaves, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and the growing alienation of people from the natural environment. Urban green space is no longer a luxury. It is infrastructure of vital importance, just like water and electricity.

For many years, however, the dominant approach was one of “ornamentation” rather than ecological function. We planted species that were often foreign to our ecosystems, demanding in terms of water and maintenance, and unable to support local wildlife. The result has been green spaces that may be visually impressive, but are ecologically “silent.”

Native plants are species that grow naturally in our region, adapted to its climate, soils, and other living organisms. In Rhodes, this means exceptionally rich biodiversity, ranging from phrygana ecosystems and forests to the unique plants of the coastal zone. Greece is one of the richest countries in biodiversity, with more than 6,000 plant species and an impressive number of endemics—a natural heritage that can, and must, have a place within our cities as well.

The use of native plant species increases the abundance and diversity of insects, small mammals, and birds in urban landscapes, with direct benefits for the provision of ecosystem services. Native plants form the foundation of local food webs. They feed bees, butterflies, birds, small mammals, and other organisms that are at risk of disappearing from cities. Areas planted with native species can support up to four times more pollinator species compared to areas planted with non-native ornamental plants. By using native plants, cities cease to be places where trees and shrubs are planted merely for decoration. They are transformed into living ecosystems that function in harmony and self-regulation: tree-lined streets with species that host birds and insects, parks that bloom seasonally without artificial irrigation, small “urban meadows” with nectar-rich and resilient plants.

     These are not utopias—they are already being implemented in many European cities and are beginning to be applied in Greece as well.

    In climates with summer droughts like ours, native species have adaptations that reduce irrigation needs, increase survival under drought conditions, and provide resistance to pests and diseases. As a result, they require less water, less fertilization, and less maintenance. At a time when water is becoming a scarce and precious resource, these savings are of enormous importance for municipalities.

    In Mediterranean cities, heatwaves are expected to intensify. Native plants can withstand temperatures and periods of drought that non-native species cannot, making them a strategic adaptation choice for the cities of the future.

Moreover, contact with the natural landscape of our region—with its characteristic scents, colors, and seasons—has a therapeutic effect. Studies show that biodiverse natural landscapes reduce stress, enhance memory and the immune system, and promote mental well-being. Native plants connect people to their place, to a part of their culture and identity. A public space scented with thyme on summer afternoons, with sage and rosemary, is not simply green. It is experience, memory, identity. Native plants carry history: they were the herbs of antiquity, the plants of traditional medicine, nutrition, and poetry. Why should they disappear from our cities, replaced by plants that “say” nothing to us beyond cheap visual impact?

    One of the common arguments against native plants is that they are “not as ornamental.” But is that really so? Or have we simply learned to see them as “wild” and “messy”? Aesthetics are a matter of education. When we learn to appreciate the beauty of Mediterranean nature—its modesty, harmony, fragrance, and simplicity—then the natural also becomes aesthetically valuable. We have learned to believe that beauty exists only in High Art: in museums and concert halls, or, in the case of urban green spaces, in striking and exotic tropical plants, elaborate designs, and imposed intense colors. We must liberate beauty from rare objects of high value and rigid aesthetic hierarchies. Such lofty ideas confine the experience of beauty to something novel and hard to find, simply because we fail to perceive it in the immediate presence of things as they are, by discovering their inherent beauty.

Moreover, contemporary landscape design trends increasingly favor natural, dynamic, and sustainable green spaces over geometrically shaped, strictly controlled, static, and predictable ones.

      Let us therefore imagine a city where birds and butterflies once again find space to live, where we breathe in the scent of Greek nature, where parks are not merely “green carpets” but ecological pockets of life. A humane, vibrant, sustainable city. A city that reconnects its residents with their place and their nature. Choosing native plants in urban green spaces is not a fashion. It is an act of ecological responsibility and cultural awareness, as well as a strategic choice for the sustainability of the city.