No city in our modern world is without trees and plants
within its urban borders. The trees serve multiple functionalities inside a
city, from simple purposes like concealing sun rays to other complex roles like
uplifting a site to meet the expectations of the visitors and subconsciously
convince people that this site is worth visiting again. Trees contribute to the
aura of an urban site. How so? This question can only be answered in a
multi-faceted way.
First of all, city plants do not degrade the attraction of a
place no matter how unfitting they are for that urban zone. Just think about
it; you always find those little shrubs and weeds and moss crammed between
pavement tiles and thrive in those corners where they find footing but no foot
can step on them. we are usually unaware of them but every small caboodle of
these plants is a small living ecosystem that has a adapted to city life. I
believe that these little beings make city life bearable. They subconsciously
apprise us of the harsh reality of life and of the necessity to overcome and
flourish.
Plants have a special why of telling us about the culture
and the politics of a place. In certain parts of the world, city architecture
involving plant displays unison of buildings and plants in which plants are unequivocal
part of city landscape. Take the example of Copenhagen, the capital city of
Denmark which established the Five-Finger Plan in 1947, guiding
the city's long-term growth by concentrating urban development and transit
corridors along five "fingers" extending from the historic center.
This means that spaces between these transit fingers are preserved as open
land designated for parks, forests, and agriculture, ensuring residents stay
close to nature. Additionally, Paris aims to plenty’s 170,000 new
trees by 2026 to help the city keep cool and fight climate change, as it
describes itself as one of the most wooded capitals.
On the other hand, some cities struggle with ineffective and
scarce green places even though they do launch initiatives and plans to develop
urban greening. The problem lays in the lack or failure to apply a good
strategy. The Prominent features in most of these cities involve but not
limited to:
1- The use of non-native plant species.
2- The practice of topiary in streets
3- Overlooking greening in crammed city centers
The use of non-native plant species:
Alot of African cities use thousands of liters of drinkable water to keep the lawn in the gardens green. Lawn is the most conspicuous issue in cities that adopt aboriginal
plant species. While most trees do not usually survive outside their native
environments, lawn stands as an exception it demands large quantities of water
and fertilizer to maintain its green flush. Cites adopting lawn in their public
parks while the climate do not support it usually want to be associated and
compared with European capitals.
The practice of topiary in streets:
Topiary is the act of clipping or trimming trees and shrubs into decorative
shapes especially of animals. For trees that are supposed to provide shadow,
lower city temperature and clean the air, this is a heinous crime. This kills
the tree's potential, benefits and decorative value, as topiary has
no decorative value when the sun rays, hate waves, and polluted air suffocates
us the moment we step outside our homes.
Overlooking greening in crammed city centers:
Finally, high-density urban environments, greening is
frequently overlooked due to the push for compact city policies and infill
development, which prioritize housing, commercial space, and transit
infrastructure over vegetation. Urban planning research highlights that densely
built city centers often treat green space as a secondary aesthetic amenity
rather than vital infrastructure, leading to a persistent decline in tree
canopy cover and accessible open space. This oversight exacerbates urban heat
island effects, degrades air quality, and restricts human health benefits like
stress reduction and climate resilience. Furthermore, high land values, severe
spatial competition, and complex maintenance requirements often lead
municipalities and private developers to bypass green integration, leaving
central urban districts fragmented from natural ecosystems especially in third world countries.
Plants, cultivated or Ruderal are a paramout part of the city livability and charm. Trees and and plants always find a way to thrive and establish a presence. They constitutes the ecology of a place and therefore, an essential part of its biological culture. We must strive to make our cities a friendly place for trees and plants, a space where both humans and plants can coexsist simbiotically. Because a city without a trees is like a fish without gills.