S07 - Session P2 - Shades of green – planting considerations to support biodiversity in cities

Authors: Noeleen Smyth *

Today more than half of the world's population live in cities and urban greenspace has become import for habitat and species biodiversity. There is a huge potential for cities to provide refuges for native flora and threatened plants. Urban spaces are not devoid of native species and native wildflowers. Urban areas are also often the point of origin of many exotic invasive species, which can spread into adjacent landscapes along transport corridors such as railways and roads, in many cases eventually invading natural areas. There are many instances of planting wildflower mixes into road verges in Dublin City the capital of Ireland. Some common wildflower seed mixes for sale in Ireland from major retailers were investigated. These were labelled as "biodiversity" and "wildflower" seed mixes. Only 15% of the species found in these packets were native Irish wildflowers though no provenance or origin was provided on the packets and 85% of species were found to be non-native exotic species. These wildflower seed mixes have potential to negatively affect species and genetic biodiversity in Ireland when sown outside gardens.