Landscape Plant Species Selection

Background:

There are many factors that should be considered in the selection of trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers for landscape use. Characteristics such as height at maturity, salt tolerance, drought tolerance, whether or not a particular plant is a native species or not, are among the factors that landscapers should consider in selecting plant species.

Traditionally, printed selection guides have been consulted by landscapers in choosing which kinds of plants to use. More recently, plant selection software packages have been developed. These packages enable landscapers to establish the criteria they deem to be important in landscape plant selection, and the database in the software gives the landscaper lists of appropriate plant species. Some of these software packages also give the landscaper pictures of the particular species in typical landscape surroundings, so that people who may be unfamiliar with any particular plant can see its image in a typical landscape.

In this exercise, you will use one of the published software packages, enter certain landscape characteristics, and develop lists of plant species that satisfy the criteria chosen.

Materials:

For each student group:

1. One computer equipped with a CD-ROM drive
2. One CD-ROM disk that contains the Plantfinder program (Florida Agricultural Informational Retrieval System Disk 4)
3. Copies of various print plant selection guides, for comparison purposes

Procedure:

Place the CD-ROM disk in the computer’s disk port. Select the Plantfinder icon, on the lower right side of the screen. Click on the icon. Follow the screen menu and print plant lists for criteria listed in the five examples, below.

Also, while you are developing your lists, and for your own information and experience, click on the options that enable you to see a photograph of the plants in landscape settings, and also click on the option that enables you to see the environmental and cultural data for the plant species.

On a separate sheet, which you will put into your lab and field notebook adjacent to this page,

1. List 5 moderate sized (25-40 feet at maturity) trees that can be grown in southern Florida that are moderately salt tolerant.
2. List 5 trees that are native to the State of Florida that are highly drought tolerant, highly salt tolerant, evergreen and can be grown in soils with acid pH values.
3. List 3 shrubs that are highly drought tolerant, highly salt tolerant, native to the State of Florida and will tolerate alkaline pH levels in the soil.
4. List 4 ground covers that have rounded form, are over 12 inches tall at maturity, are highly salt tolerant and highly drought tolerant.
5. List 3 trees that have a columnar shape, are between 25-60 feet tall at maturity, and have a medium to fast growth rate.

For comparison purposes, look through some of the printed plant selection guides that your instructor has brought to class. Compare the act of plant selection using the computer program with how you would conduct the same plant selections using the printed guides (You do not have to repeat the plant selection process using the printed guides). In a brief sentence or two on the bottom of this page, write out your view of the relative strengths and weaknesses of using computer based plant selection procedures as compared to using printed plant selection guides.