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https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/melbourne-tried-to-bring-butterflies-back-to-the-cbd-it-worked-20220930-p5bm5o.html>
"Missing in action in many of our inner-city streets, even as we move into peak
spring, is an abundance of bees, butterflies and birds. Chequered Cuckoo Bees,
Australian Painted Ladies, Superb Fairy Wrens and their ilk are often lying low
just as they should be making merry.
As cities keep expanding, wildlife keeps exiting and now there is a growing
push to turn the situation around – invariably by planting more plants.
But some plants are more beneficial to fauna than others and, five years ago,
the University of Melbourne and the City of Melbourne teamed up to deduce
exactly what the most useful plants might be. What they homed in on was the
understory. While many of our inner urban streets contain trees and lawn, there
tends to be a gap when it comes to the space in between.
Urban ecologist and University of Melbourne professor, Nick Williams, says it
is the plants that fill these midway points – the native shrubs, perennial
herbs and grasses – that are “critically important” to insects and small birds.
This understory is their refuge. It provides habitat and sustenance, and the
more complex that understory, the better.
In what might prove useful for everyone wanting to welcome more wildlife into
their gardens, Williams, together with others, including the university’s
director of urban horticulture, John Rayner, devised a list of more than 100,
mostly native, understory species that could help increase the biodiversity of
our city streets."
Via
Future Crunch issue 189:
https://futurecrunch.com/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
