Landscape plants: functioning for the future

Over the last 30 years, researchers have done much to highlight the value of urban green space in terms of ecosystem services. As horticulturalists, we can now identify, or make educated guesses, about individual plant taxa that: i) improve air quality, ii) promote surface and atmospheric cooling, iii) capture and slow the run-off of rainwater and dissipate it effectively back to the atmosphere, iv) insulate buildings, v) provide nutrition and refuge for animals, and also those that, vi) relax us and improve our mental health directly or indirectly. But identifying functional plants and communities is only part of the story. As the world around us changes rapidly due to climatic change and biodiversity loss, we need to ensure urban vegetation is resilient and remains fit for purpose. Plants that are struggling, rarely provide effective ecosystem services. This paper calls for a step-change in our attitudes to urban vegetation and to develop strategies that ensures its survival and future functionality. Rather than anticipating the way that urban vegetation use will evolve over the next few years, the paper anticipates what will be the environmental realities and societal needs 50-100 years hence, and what we need to plan for and prioritise in that context. It aims to ‘horizon-scan’ for design and management that may be required to deal with the problems of the mid-late 21^st century. It comments on how we accommodate plants in an increasingly densified urban matrix, examine/challenge current societal attitudes to plants (and nature in general), ensure future plantscapes are managed sustainably, and identify a spectrum of management strategies that are appropriate to plant communities used in different contexts and for different purposes. The paper discusses service provision and changes required for adaptation in the UK, but the principles discussed have application elsewhere.