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| Green Roof Butterflies (Gulf Fritillary) Mating, Breaking Ground Contracting Green Roof |
Green roofs are so very special to the urban core.
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Showing posts with label green roof biodiversity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green roof biodiversity. Show all posts
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Florida Green Roofs: Creating Communal Habitat for Wildlife in the Concrete Jungle
Nature welcomes any small patch of greenery across the otherwise barren rooftops of the urban core. Early yesterday I was working on the Breaking Ground Contracting site - we are installing a clumping bamboo hedge between the site and I-10 and walked up to the rooftop garden area. Two Gulf Fritillary butterflies were mating.
We've all been amazed at how quickly the green roof was colonized by wildlife. Every day brings a new species or chance to see what normally we miss. Interestingly, the pair chose a quieter spot, back toward the original rescued ground level site plants, away from all the native wildflowers and zinnia's to share.
Green roofs are so very special to the urban core.
Green roofs are so very special to the urban core.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Florida Green Roofs, Lines, Curves and Biodiversart. A boring Green Roof commentary about boring design.
Lines or curves on a green roof? This is a question some green roof designers, as well as ground level landscapers ask on a frequent basis.
Most of us like to compartmentalize. The theory behind compartmentalization arises in our culture's indoctrination of classical Greek logic. Thank you Aristotle. There must be a right and wrong. Everything is black or white. Straight lines are what we seek out with our straight driveways, straight roads, pin stripe shirts and square or rectangular houses, each perfectly compartmentalized. Wearing a tie with diagonally lined stripes is pushing it.
Curves in a landscape or on a green roof? I think so. Why? Read on.
Working with engineers for much of my life in the real estate development field, I've come to quickly tire of square parking lots, linear roads and especially square stormwater ponds. So when green roof designs come along where stormwater becomes an integral function and engineers are involved I usually see more of the same square plots of the same plants, lines of the same species and not a curve in sight.
The Pensacola one-stop permitting center Green Roof, the largest in Florida is all compartmentalized by plant species.
There are a group of innovative designers, engineers and landscape people who use curves quite effectively though and I am always more attracted to flowing their flowing designs.
We can learn from nature though as to whether a linear design with compartmentalization or a curvaceously random planting approach is more appropriate for a green roof design, and why.
Nature shows and tells us plants do not like to be contained in boundaries. We edge our driveways and sidewalks because the St. Augustine grass does not stop growing upon reaching the boundary of the concrete, disturbing us in unexplainable ways. Moral standing is many times based upon a family's lawn lines.
But as much as we fight nature, she ignores us and keeps growing circles around us, across our linear boundaries.
The Florida native groundcover, creeping mimosa, Mimosa strigillosa, certainly has not minded the linear green roof edging installed here on a recent project we completed, spilling about in her own random, curvy fashion.
I propose we should move away from linear thought and linear green roof design and adapt the more random cuves we see in natures designs.
Whenever we start using random curves, our green roofs seem to function better.
Even those ultra-boring but equally beautiful sedum roofs I argue against never always look curvaceous, with their stunning flowing textures and colors.
All we really need to do is look and listen. A bee visiting the green roof doesn't fly in straight lines, neither do butterflies, dragonflies or birds. A green roof tree frog doesn't hop in straight lines and I can't think of a single plant who grows perfectly straight (though pine trees come close as does Scouring rush or horsetail, Equisetum hymale). I've never heard a song bird screech out a monotone call and there are few if any one genus ecosystems around.
The greatest invention our fascination with liner design, compartmentalization and oneness was produced is either the parking space or the cubicle, both usually despised by those who live in them.
But curvaceous design does not need to lack formality.
I have seen some beautifully formal, yet radon curves in nature.
Here is why I propose we should try and strive for those complicated, random curves in our green roof plantings and designs.
First of all, for most normal plant ecosystems to survive long term, pollinators must be attracted so plant sex can happen. Then seeds are produced and more baby plants come along to fill in around the mother plants.
I categorize pollinators into two oversimplified categories. The first are the clumsy and inefficient pollinators who end up knocking most of the pollen to the ground. The second are the hairy, native pollinators who are very efficient at their jobs.
The clumsy, inefficient pollinators will get what they can take, plant design wise.
The effective, maybe magnitudes smarter pollinators are choosy and go for the curvy, more nature-like plant designs on green roofs.
In the end, the curvaceous, randomly planted green roof design will last longer, look better and survive where the linear designs wont.
While the linear green roof designs are being weed wacked, mowed or hit with Round Up, the green roofs all about curves will be posing for best design awards.
Just a thought.
Think of natures ultimate beauty creations - the nautilus, the helical strand or RNA, a long winding river.
Read this excellent article posted in the Guardian about the beauty and science of curves.
Make sure your next green roof contains many curves in plant layout and design.
Most of us like to compartmentalize. The theory behind compartmentalization arises in our culture's indoctrination of classical Greek logic. Thank you Aristotle. There must be a right and wrong. Everything is black or white. Straight lines are what we seek out with our straight driveways, straight roads, pin stripe shirts and square or rectangular houses, each perfectly compartmentalized. Wearing a tie with diagonally lined stripes is pushing it.
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| Linear Design - Boring and Boring |
Curves in a landscape or on a green roof? I think so. Why? Read on.
 |
| Design by lines |
Working with engineers for much of my life in the real estate development field, I've come to quickly tire of square parking lots, linear roads and especially square stormwater ponds. So when green roof designs come along where stormwater becomes an integral function and engineers are involved I usually see more of the same square plots of the same plants, lines of the same species and not a curve in sight.
The Pensacola one-stop permitting center Green Roof, the largest in Florida is all compartmentalized by plant species.
There are a group of innovative designers, engineers and landscape people who use curves quite effectively though and I am always more attracted to flowing their flowing designs.
We can learn from nature though as to whether a linear design with compartmentalization or a curvaceously random planting approach is more appropriate for a green roof design, and why.
Nature shows and tells us plants do not like to be contained in boundaries. We edge our driveways and sidewalks because the St. Augustine grass does not stop growing upon reaching the boundary of the concrete, disturbing us in unexplainable ways. Moral standing is many times based upon a family's lawn lines.
But as much as we fight nature, she ignores us and keeps growing circles around us, across our linear boundaries.
The Florida native groundcover, creeping mimosa, Mimosa strigillosa, certainly has not minded the linear green roof edging installed here on a recent project we completed, spilling about in her own random, curvy fashion.
 |
| Green Roof plants that won't stay in the box |
I propose we should move away from linear thought and linear green roof design and adapt the more random cuves we see in natures designs.
Whenever we start using random curves, our green roofs seem to function better.
Even those ultra-boring but equally beautiful sedum roofs I argue against never always look curvaceous, with their stunning flowing textures and colors.
All we really need to do is look and listen. A bee visiting the green roof doesn't fly in straight lines, neither do butterflies, dragonflies or birds. A green roof tree frog doesn't hop in straight lines and I can't think of a single plant who grows perfectly straight (though pine trees come close as does Scouring rush or horsetail, Equisetum hymale). I've never heard a song bird screech out a monotone call and there are few if any one genus ecosystems around.
The greatest invention our fascination with liner design, compartmentalization and oneness was produced is either the parking space or the cubicle, both usually despised by those who live in them.
But curvaceous design does not need to lack formality.
I have seen some beautifully formal, yet radon curves in nature.
Here is why I propose we should try and strive for those complicated, random curves in our green roof plantings and designs.
First of all, for most normal plant ecosystems to survive long term, pollinators must be attracted so plant sex can happen. Then seeds are produced and more baby plants come along to fill in around the mother plants.
I categorize pollinators into two oversimplified categories. The first are the clumsy and inefficient pollinators who end up knocking most of the pollen to the ground. The second are the hairy, native pollinators who are very efficient at their jobs.
The clumsy, inefficient pollinators will get what they can take, plant design wise.
The effective, maybe magnitudes smarter pollinators are choosy and go for the curvy, more nature-like plant designs on green roofs.
In the end, the curvaceous, randomly planted green roof design will last longer, look better and survive where the linear designs wont.
While the linear green roof designs are being weed wacked, mowed or hit with Round Up, the green roofs all about curves will be posing for best design awards.
Just a thought.
Think of natures ultimate beauty creations - the nautilus, the helical strand or RNA, a long winding river.
Read this excellent article posted in the Guardian about the beauty and science of curves.
Make sure your next green roof contains many curves in plant layout and design.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Green Roofs and Biodiversity, Floristic Survey Breaking Ground Contracting Project, Jacksonville, Florida
The Breaking Ground Contracting project is a LEED registered project on track for Platinum certification. Always amazed with the recycling and sustainability efforts the project supports, my latest visit to the site allowed for collection of background flora data collection.
Understanding benefits of sustainability, including those of green roofs and living walls is part of the effort Breaking Ground Contracting is conducting with the 'Green' building project. Over time, biodiversity data will be collected and published as part of ongoing research.
As part of a baseline floristic survey, pedestrian transects were conducted across the site in the spring of 2011, during construction. Site visits were conducted in January, February and March. The site is relatively small and generally covered with impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete. Adjacent lots include a warehouse, a parts supplier store and Interstate-10.
Though surveys have been completed for wildlife and trees, the data below focuses on herbaceous material existing on the site.
Importantly, though most herbaceous plant species have leafed out and can be identified, continual assessment will proceed through the summer. Ultimately we suspect the biodiversity of both wildlife and plants will significantly increase with the addition of the project's living walls and green roof. Interestingly, site contains thirteen different plant families (herbaceous plants) with the Asteraceae family being represented by more species than any other family. Araliaceae and Lamiaceae are both also represented by more than one species on-site. There are at least a total of nineteen different herbaceous plant species onsite.
Analysis of the biodiversity data will be ongoing and updated regularly here for educational purposes.
The BGC Site floristic herbaceous survey indicated the presence of the following plants (not including trees):
Rubiaceae family
Galium hispidulum
Smilacaceae family
Smilax glauca
Asteraceae family
Senecio spp.
Bidens mitis
Solidago arguta
Eupatorium capillifolium
Taraxacum officinale
Geraniaceae family
Geranium carolinianum
Anacardiaceae family
Toxicodendron radicans
Lamiaceae family
Lamium amplexicaule
Stachys floridana
Caryophyllaceae family
Stellaria media
Violaceae family
Viola sororia
Araliaceae family
Centella asiatica
Hydrocotyle umbellata
Poaceae family
Paspalum laeve
Oxalidaceae family
Oxalis corniculata
Lauraceae family
Cinnamomum camphora
Phytolaccaceae family
Phytolacca americana
The photos below are representative of the herbaceous plants encountered onsite.
Understanding benefits of sustainability, including those of green roofs and living walls is part of the effort Breaking Ground Contracting is conducting with the 'Green' building project. Over time, biodiversity data will be collected and published as part of ongoing research.
As part of a baseline floristic survey, pedestrian transects were conducted across the site in the spring of 2011, during construction. Site visits were conducted in January, February and March. The site is relatively small and generally covered with impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete. Adjacent lots include a warehouse, a parts supplier store and Interstate-10.
Though surveys have been completed for wildlife and trees, the data below focuses on herbaceous material existing on the site.
Importantly, though most herbaceous plant species have leafed out and can be identified, continual assessment will proceed through the summer. Ultimately we suspect the biodiversity of both wildlife and plants will significantly increase with the addition of the project's living walls and green roof. Interestingly, site contains thirteen different plant families (herbaceous plants) with the Asteraceae family being represented by more species than any other family. Araliaceae and Lamiaceae are both also represented by more than one species on-site. There are at least a total of nineteen different herbaceous plant species onsite.
Analysis of the biodiversity data will be ongoing and updated regularly here for educational purposes.
The BGC Site floristic herbaceous survey indicated the presence of the following plants (not including trees):
Rubiaceae family
Galium hispidulum
Smilacaceae family
Smilax glauca
Asteraceae family
Senecio spp.
Bidens mitis
Solidago arguta
Eupatorium capillifolium
Taraxacum officinale
Geraniaceae family
Geranium carolinianum
Anacardiaceae family
Toxicodendron radicans
Lamiaceae family
Lamium amplexicaule
Stachys floridana
Caryophyllaceae family
Stellaria media
Violaceae family
Viola sororia
Araliaceae family
Centella asiatica
Hydrocotyle umbellata
Poaceae family
Paspalum laeve
Oxalidaceae family
Oxalis corniculata
Lauraceae family
Cinnamomum camphora
Phytolaccaceae family
Phytolacca americana
The photos below are representative of the herbaceous plants encountered onsite.
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| Smilax, Senecio, Toxicodendron, Geranium |
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| Lamium, Senecio, Stellaria |
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| Bidens, Viola |
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| Bidens, Viola, Senecio |
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| Stellaria |
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| Stellaria, Centella |
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| Stellaria |
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| Stellaria, Senecio, Paspalum |
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| Senecio, Solidago, Geranium |
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| Senecio, Oxalis, Geranium, Paspalum |
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| Cinnamomum, Galium, Stellaria |
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| Eupatorium, Galium |
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| Eupatorium, Solidago, Galium |
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| Galium |
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| Galium, Phytolacca |
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| Hydrocotyle, Senecio, Paspalum, Galium, Stellaria |
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| Oxalis |
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| Stachys, Galium |
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| Taraxacum |
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Green Roofs Scream Habitat and Biodiversity
Working out back on another Green Roof and a commotion on one of the green roofs inspires me to grab Ruairi's Canon and snap photos of the two male doves fighting over the parsley patch while the female joins the fray.
Feathers fly!
As in Nature, the weaker male looses out on the brunch.
Green roofs scream Habitat and Biodiversity. Looking forward to the butterfly larvae feeding on the parsley soon.
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| Checking out the Rooftop Parsley Patch |
Feathers fly!
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| A Dove Tussle |
As in Nature, the weaker male looses out on the brunch.
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| Green Roofs Provide Habitat and Biodiversity for Wildlife |
Green roofs scream Habitat and Biodiversity. Looking forward to the butterfly larvae feeding on the parsley soon.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sparrow & Dew Catchers Sparrow on the Green Roof on the Green Roof
Walked outside and the sparrows were all over the green roof. Spring is coming! Ran back in, grabbed the camera and shot a photo before they all flew to the garden..
BTW - the dew catchers work great - just need to be removed in the event of a cyclone :)
Green roofs are so very critical to reestablishing foraging and communal habitat in the Urban Core and supporting biodiversity.
BTW - the dew catchers work great - just need to be removed in the event of a cyclone :)
Green roofs are so very critical to reestablishing foraging and communal habitat in the Urban Core and supporting biodiversity.
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| Sparrow on the Green Roof |
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