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Ecosystem Services of Landscape Plants
166 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we'll talk about all the possible ecosystem services that can be provided by landscape plants. What are ecosystem services? How do they benefit us and our local communities? And how can we design and maintain landscapes that provide them? Tune in and discover how landscapes can enhance your living spaces!
Ecosystem Services of Landscape Plants Publication
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Introduction to Hort Culture Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Hort Culture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
00:00:16
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to a in-person live version of Hort Culture Podcast. And you heard me right, we're all sitting in the same room. I'm actually very, very close to all these gentlemen right now, trying to get them. We've had a lot of caffeine. So this is a recipe for even more of a disaster than we sometimes involve ourselves in. There is Diane Mountain Dew involved in this podcast, people. Very close, some might say too close. To the edge. Very close.
00:00:45
Speaker
So, awesome. Well, we are talking about, well, this is a Josh-centric episode today. No pressure, Charles. Yeah, no pressure, man. And this, I get to play the dummy who gets to ask questions like, I don't know what's going on. So I'm really excited about that. That's correct. Obviously, you're playing the dummy. Playing the dummy. Got it. I mean, I got to give him something, right? Noted.
Ecosystem Services of Landscape Plants
00:01:08
Speaker
So, Josh, what are we chatting about today?
00:01:11
Speaker
Uh, the ecosystem services of landscape plants. Which is a lot of big words. Tell me more. That's correct. Well, plants do things for us. What? No. And beyond. I thought landscapes were just supposed to look pretty. I mean, isn't that what it's all about?
00:01:28
Speaker
They do look pretty, but they can do other things for us as well. Just like you, Josh, you're not just here to look pretty. All of that is most of what I do. Yes, no, plants can do things. They can clean our air. They can moderate the temperature around us. Everything within that realm of ecosystem services fits into these different categories, right? Before we even jump into that, maybe like on the landscape, we're talking about landscape plants versus
00:01:57
Speaker
What? As opposed to what? Agricultural plants, like wild forests. Oh, I thought you were going like the hardscape and softscape route. The term that I've heard used that I started repeating once I heard it was the built environment, the area where humans live and create their own habitats for activity and recreation.
00:02:23
Speaker
So these are the places where we put plants specifically on purpose. And what do they do for us in those places? So it could be like along in a city park, but it could also be along streets. It could be in people's yards. It could be around their houses. It could be around buildings, you know, businesses or libraries or whatever. The curb cuts.
00:02:44
Speaker
McDonald's. In general, we're talking about those. You know that thing you see when you're in the drive-thru? That lone little boxwood. All the winter-killed boxwoods. Those Cela de Orode lilies. Yeah. We can tell you have strong opinions. You know that and Nandina, man. And so within that side of things, the landscaping side, there's been maybe traditionally some plants that have risen to the top, become popular, et cetera, but there's some other ones we might suggest or consider.
00:03:12
Speaker
They have this sort of like more of an eco, they play a role in the landscape and in the ecosystem. I just wanted to make sure everybody sure on the same page. Yeah, that's definitely a big piece of it is what what they can do for us in these places, because these places are where there can be a lot of human activity that can create issues around it. A lot of, say, carbon monoxide or activities related to industry in complete combustion, things like that. And those are
00:03:40
Speaker
let's say, environmental contaminants that can cause problems for certain trees. And that's where we can put together lists of landscape plants that not only tolerate those conditions, but can work to alleviate them as well. Sort of this idea of the trees being the lungs of the city and be able to filter out things for us. So I'm hearing landscape is not only formed, but also functioned in. Totally. Yeah. And the two aren't, I realize the two aren't
00:04:10
Speaker
you know, distinct of one another. I guess you could accomplish both in a well-done system, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. I wish that was my senior superlative, like both form and function. Most form and function. Form, oh, and function. Mine was similar, but mine was the most formable and functionless.
00:04:32
Speaker
Unlike our, our landscape should not be that way, by the way. Well, they don't have to be. It doesn't have, they can work for us, I guess. I don't know. It's interesting though, you know, working with people like when you're talking about landscapes and I don't know, Josh, you, you've written a publication.
Functional and Aesthetic Landscaping
00:04:44
Speaker
I hope you talk a lot about today. It's an impressive publication and it deals with, you know, it seems like larger scale systems as well as some small scale elements. But I learned a long time ago when people, when you start to talk about them or talk about something like landscaping with folks.
00:05:01
Speaker
Uh, you really have to start with, it seems like people's objectives for that landscape because, you know, we joke, man, we said form and function and we touched on the aesthetics, but a lot of times it's that function. What do they want a landscape to do or what do they want it to be? That seems like that's an important aspect against Josh. Yeah. I would say that that's a kind of a key aspect when you're talking to people is to find out what are they willing to invest.
00:05:29
Speaker
Or what are they willing to avoid? Like the function aspect is a good way to kind of bring it up. But do you want, is this an area that you want to have to spend every week mowing, you know, or at least 22-ish weeks out of the year and all the kind of energy and labor costs associated with that? Or do you want it to be something we would consider to be a lower maintenance landscape? Is this an area you want to spend time in relaxing or doing some kind of work?
00:05:57
Speaker
Or are you specifically looking for kind of alleviating noise issues? Traffic is one of the kind of biggest noises that one hears in the urban environment constantly, and you can use plants to block that. They're much more effective than just a sheer wall, whereas a wall will kind of create echoes and things like that. The sort of complicated surface of landscape plants has a way of deadening
00:06:26
Speaker
noise pollution. Like absorbs it. Right. It's a sponge. Right. Yeah. So much like rock and roll, landscape plans ain't noise pollution or can help with, sorry. Maybe mitigate noise, mitigate rock and roll. I'm sorry, noise pollution.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, so those, you know, kind of noise attenuation and... Josh is just back to this. And quality improvement. He's ignoring us. I didn't really know where to go. He says being in the same room with these people face-to-face is not a pleasurable experience. I no longer like any of these. It's typical stuff. But back to landscape egos as well.
00:07:06
Speaker
Um, another really key one, uh, or a key service ecosystem service that landscape plants provide for us is, and this will sound complicated at first, but kind of an energy conservation, or I like thinking and using these terms in my head as micro climate regulation. Right. So trees. Well, like for example, uh, planting a deciduous tree somewhere. Trees that loses its leaves, things like a maple or an oak. Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker
trees that will lose their leaves and allow more sunlight penetration, those are good for trying to, let's say, blocking sunlight in the summertime, but still letting some through in the wintertime. Something that you want to think about that kind of seasonality with choosing what you want the tree to provide. Which, you know, a large tree, even when it loses all its leaves, is still going to shade out some stuff, but it won't be as pronounced as it is in the summer.
00:08:05
Speaker
Whereas if you're looking for something to kind of block or control wind year round, then you want to go with an evergreen, something like that. And thinking about where prevailing winds come from at what time of the year and what will be there, what leaves will be there to kind of provide that. All these subdivisions would be very different places if they had planted with those types of thoughts in mind, I would say. Like not only is it like,
00:08:33
Speaker
There's, we, we talk about that right tree, right place. We say that all the time, right? And mostly when we say that are talking about, you know, making sure that you're putting a species in that can tolerate, you know, maybe that really heavy clay soil or extra water, um, or full sun or shade or whatever. But what we don't often talk about is what you're saying, Josh is like that right tree, right place, as in.
00:08:57
Speaker
Should it be deciduous? Should it be evergreen? Do you want it to block wind and sound for you? Or do you want it to shade your backyard so that you can go outside more often?
00:09:09
Speaker
maybe keep the grass shorter because of the shade. Yeah. That's interesting. I hadn't thought of that, but the right tree, right place. We are almost always talking about what can we plant here that will survive and do well. Whereas this is kind of the flip side of this. What do we want to do well there? Right. And thinking about it from the perspective of what is the function of that tree in this place. It's the full perspective. Like it's, it's not just one or the other. It should be all of that combined.
00:09:37
Speaker
I just want to take a very brief break to acknowledge that the form of beautiful trees is amazing and that we're talking a lot about function, but we're all plant lovers here. And so if it feels a little too utilitarian and mercenary in our approach to trees, that's not, that's just, we're just taking a time out from all the hippy dippy stuff for today. So that we can talk about some functional stuff, but we are all, we all gush at a, a beautiful plant, beautiful tree. Well, you can have a beautiful redbud or a dogwood or a, um, you know,
00:10:07
Speaker
Ginkgo. Ginkgo. Gonna have a beautiful tree, but also put it in the place where it's not only gonna thrive, but make sure that it's shade in the backyard or something like that. Trees are still a little deeper, but not just trees, right? Like there's shrubs and stuff that also are part of all of this. Right. I guess I should reference this publication that I'm relying upon that was put together several years ago.
00:10:34
Speaker
You can look it up by the number in the University of Kentucky system. It's H-O-1-2-1. Ecosystem services of landscape plants, a guide for consumers and communities. Anyway, there's a lot of good tools in there, but something, you know, when we're talking about the function of a tree in a place, there's a really great tool that is still working that was put together in concert with the U.S.
Economic and Environmental Value of Trees
00:10:57
Speaker
Forest Service and Davy Tree, which is like a worker-owned arborist
00:11:02
Speaker
Corporation or company that works in the eastern half of the US for landscape management, but it's Kyle. I tree tools. I love I tree. Yeah, it I'm not gonna lie to you. I told me about your experiences with okay, so my experiences is limited and I sat in a classroom and Frankfurt and was like trying to learn how to use this software and like there are so many cool things to it and one of my favorite so I work a lot with
00:11:30
Speaker
like cities who are doing plantings, right? City, county plantings and trying to mitigate like stormwater and shading the sidewalks and you know, all the things that you're talking about, but on more of a city scale and not just homeowner. And so it was fascinating to be like, Oh, well we could record these trees and let people know what they're doing for the local environment. Cause you know, sometimes we work with people, they're like, why is this tree taking up space that a car could be parking or whatever?
00:11:58
Speaker
And so you can say, Oh, it's lowering the temperature by this amount, you know, by, by getting all this data in, but it was so, there was so much it could do that it was overwhelming. And it was like for a normal person to use who didn't use it every single day, which I think a lot of people would be like that. Uh, it, there was a lot that went into it. And like, if I pulled it up right now, I probably couldn't, I probably had to refamiliarize myself with it the other day. It's, it's.
00:12:27
Speaker
It's not, if you focus on the tree part of it, like, okay, essentially this website, the itreetools.org, when you go there, you can put in a dress, you can draw sort of the structures that you're interested in finding out about energy conservation, energy savings associated with it, and then pick a tree and essentially kind of plant it and tell it what the diameter that breast height is or the circumference
00:12:54
Speaker
And then you can have that model over the years, what sort of cost savings are associated with energy conservation, stormwater runoff, stuff like that. And it'll basically put out a PDF document that'll tell you this is what it'll do in year one where you started, year 20 down the road, and it'll give you all the cumulative data. I remember when I first discovered it, I thought it would be a great tool for someone who is doing or providing
00:13:24
Speaker
kind of landscape services as a way to articulate to someone why it's important to take care of a tree that is in their landscape, instead of just seeing it as something that provides risk, right? Nobody wants to have a tree fall on their house, but if you keep a tree alive, if you think of trees and landscape plants as infrastructure, and that require a little bit of maintenance, that they can provide a lot for you.
00:13:53
Speaker
And one way I wanted to use it was to save a tree for me cut down. So those of you who maybe wanted to save a tree, sometimes you got to put, uh, unfortunately I have to put a money value on things. And so if you can attach data, you know, and, and maybe that's money, maybe that's just, you know, that it helps places, not flood, not necessarily just dollars, but helping something not flood, um, or lower temperature and therefore, you know, AC usage or something.
00:14:21
Speaker
A lot of times that catches attention when you're dealing with people who are giving you a fraction of a second to talk to them. Sure. Yeah. Think of it as a tool to help you advocate for the trees. You can be a Lorax. Listen, I want to live my life. I want to be the Lorax. He's sassy and also saves trees. And I feel like that's who I want to be when I grow up. So just saying. You know, tools like that, it's kind of cool because it appeals to a person that thinks maybe differently. That's what I love about that tool. It puts an economic figure.
00:14:51
Speaker
as far as when you're trying to do the pros and cons and weighing cost measures and cost cutting measures. The thing I love about that is you can assign numbers that, you know, with research backing over time, yes, the benefits may be amortized over a time scale that's a little bit longer, but at least you have something that shows there is a ROI, return on investment. And of course we all know that as plant lovers, we know, you know, there's lots of return on investment for planting perennials like trees.
00:15:17
Speaker
But for someone that may not be so accustomed to that, it seems just like a great tool to assign members. I love that. Yeah. And in that advocacy angle, you know, it definitely talks about these are your heating and cooling savings, right? But for something like stormwater runoff, that's not something we normally think of as the individual having to pay for. But if you think of trees being able to reduce stormwater runoff for their community, that can end up saving
00:15:45
Speaker
communities, lots of money. Sure. Talks about the value of the trees. It's like soil stabilization and, you know, we talk about all the different angles, but that to me is almost like an architectural feature of a site. We talk a lot about the architectural aspects of landscaping, creating rooms and defining spaces. When you have large commercial spaces, you're always trying to bring the size of those spaces down. Well, trees and other plant materials and landscapes can do that. I know it's not an ecosystem service.
00:16:13
Speaker
But it's kind of another feature that's related to some of the things you're talking about. And they have all these secondary benefits when you install these things, especially in the larger commercial plantings, because you tend to have larger spaces and you're doing just the opposite of what homeowners sometimes want to do, which is make small spaces feel bigger. Well, in these big commercial landscapes, a lot of times our job was to make bigger spaces feel smaller. And you can do all of that with the architectural design of these spaces. And you get all of these benefits that you're talking about.
00:16:42
Speaker
Uh, one thing on that, the stormwater runoff component with something that in hearing you talk about this before that I always, it was a, an eye-opening moment for me, but you're talking about the role that the canopy plays in that. Can you talk a little bit more about that? And you gave me the example of imagining myself walking out and shaking it. Maybe you can say that when that was what made it came out, come alive for me.
00:17:07
Speaker
Well, yeah, so when it rains a lot of essentially what you want to think of trees as a form of infrastructure and things like concrete and channels and things like that are gray infrastructure, whereas trees are green infrastructure. And they essentially expand the ability of your gray infrastructure to do its job by slowing rainfall down from hitting these quick drainage points. And they do that by having this kind of
00:17:37
Speaker
varied and intense surface area that catches rainwater and doesn't hold it permanently but it holds it for a long time and it it tries to channel it at a slow enough rate that it can the plant itself can take it up
00:17:52
Speaker
and then so that it never, you know, runs off essentially. I guess something related to that would not be trees, but does that kind of get into the concept of like, I know rain gardens are typically things other than trees, but is that a related concept of like the ecological role of plants in the landscape?
00:18:08
Speaker
Preparian buffers I think would be like that's their whole point I know a lot of work was done in extension that particularly it seems like there four years ago We did a lot of work and it's continuing to be done that like on rain gardens and all the mitigation that that that can do as far as not only slow in the rainwater But all of the runoff which I'd never considered all the contaminants that are in the runoff and rain gloves are a little different because they are highly engineered with berms and
00:18:34
Speaker
and everything's at a certain slope and level to capture a given amount of rainwater or hold it for a given amount of time. So all that relates to that too, I guess. Yes. Well, and to kind of step back a little bit to the example Brett was talking about, to kind of illustrate how much rain that trees can hold. You can't really do it with a giant tree because that would be very hard, but something where you can kind of shake the trunk.
00:18:57
Speaker
And I don't know if you all have done this. I've done this because I'm a bad person. But when it's recently rained and you're walking under a tree, you can shake the trunk and it'll dump a whole lot of water on anybody else you're walking.
00:19:11
Speaker
but just as a way to kind of illustrate how much water is sitting on those trees and being prevented from washing out and that's just one small tree. Or in like kind of reverse if it's raining you seek shelter under a tree because less water is going to hit you which means the tree is holding on to some of it. Yeah the leaves are going to try to channel that to the stems or at least drop them
00:19:31
Speaker
you know, slowly within the drip line and all those things like rain gardens, et cetera. They're all there to kind of slow rain water down and to try to help it infiltrate the soil where it is rather than just essentially kicking the problem to the curb and letting it. Taking all those nutrients into the Gulf.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, I just thought it was interesting because you think of trees as their root systems are soaking up water in retaining soil Which they certainly do and you think of it as yeah, maybe slowing it down as things but if you if you think about as you said one small tree then make that a big tree then multiply that times a thousand trees and suddenly that small Incremental amount of water per leaf is multiplied times a huge amount of volume and some of that water is just gonna sit on the leaf until it evaporates off, right?
00:20:18
Speaker
It's never even going to make it into the stormwater collection thing. It's going to go stay in that water cycle outside. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting. The concept of vertical and horizontal spaces and landscapes, that's so critical. And surface area, because I guess each leaf could be looked at as surface area. For you, it's important because you can shake it on people as they walk by behind you. They'll never see it coming. Why are you the way you are?
00:20:43
Speaker
You'd have to ask my parents, probably my sister. Nature versus nurture, I don't know. Yeah, Tree Shaker. That's his alternative name, Josh Tree Shaker. Isn't there a Steve Miller song that talks about that?
00:21:00
Speaker
If not, there should be. If you want to taste your peaches, let me shake your tree. Yeah, obviously. He's a horticulturalist. Landscape content. We'll talk about fruit trees at some point. We'll bring this back up. Millions of peaches. I mean, peaches for free. Peaches and cream. Yes, all the peaches. Well, there's a lot of people. I'm trying to be professional. Josh is the professional here.
00:21:28
Speaker
But yeah, when you had mentioned that, I had just seen a statistic on this page about how mature deciduous trees, trees that lose their leaves, can intercept just a single mature tree, 500 to 700 gallons of water a year. And mature evergreen trees can intercept more than 4,000 gallons a year. Because it's rainy in wintertime sometimes. And they are active in the winter. And Kentucky is very active.
00:21:55
Speaker
time. It's mostly just mud season. So I got a question.
Species Recommendations and Native Plants
00:22:01
Speaker
What in this publication that you're
00:22:05
Speaker
alleging to have written just because your name's on it. You may have a publication in front of us. In this publication, there is a list of some or links to some actual species recommendations. Yes. Or there's a chart or something. Before you jump into it, is this
00:22:29
Speaker
Where does natives versus non-natives fit into this conversation? Is that part of this or not? We'll probably do a whole episode on natives and non-natives. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Natives definitely play a role because of what they are providing to kind of the community biodiversity, providing habitat for native insects, native birds. Yeah, I was wondering about the habitat angle of all of this. Yeah, I'd love to hear your take on that more in a minute.
00:22:56
Speaker
Well, yeah, exactly. Natives are definitely very good or important or crucial even for providing that habitat that
00:23:04
Speaker
Our built environments tend to fragment or just outright destroy habitat for native species that we do want to keep around. Even if it's something that, you know, we don't think of a songbird as eating the tree or the landscape plant itself, but they eat the insect that has co-evolved to eat on that plant or be around and located among that plant. And so, yeah, native plants are kind of crucial in the role of sort of preserving
00:23:34
Speaker
the biodiversity potential of these environments. Do any of you guys see much interest in as far as landscaping and taking into account the natural world and habitat and things like that? Do you guys get questions? Any of you guys hear? Do you see any of that? I get questions. Well, I get a lot of questions. People were coming in. So my area of the state especially has a lot of people who have moved from other
00:23:59
Speaker
probably usually other states, sometimes other coastlines. And so there's a lot of other coastlines. I don't know why. I thought you said co-signs. I was like, did we slip into some tree? Anyways, yeah. So they've come in from California and places like that. And so our plant life here
00:24:19
Speaker
It's very different and they come in and I'm grateful that they do and they say, well, what do I plant? And they say like, these are my goals. You know, usually they're not necessarily slowing water, but sometimes it's shade. I want to be able to sit in my backyard, those kinds of things. I want something to flower, blah, blah, blah. And I always start them with natives and because I tell them they're going to, they're much more likely to survive here. So if you want this tree to live, the highest likelihood of it to live,
00:24:47
Speaker
put it there. And then all that feeds into Josh, what you've been talking about. So it's not only that, you know, the caterpillar has to have this tree to complete its life cycle and you know, therefore the bird eats it and blah, blah, blah, but also that plant's going to live. So it's more likely to support that ecosystem. It's also more likely to break up that clay soil so that there are
00:25:07
Speaker
some places for that water to infiltrate right it's following those root systems and going down in there so it is yes the ecosystem that way but as the soil nerd here i'm thinking about how water infiltrates and how much better
00:25:20
Speaker
Typically native plants are doing that in the ecosystem, unless you're bush hunting cycle, which is not native and is invasive. And it's, I guess, I mean, it holds up a bank, like it holds up a bank. Adaptable as hell. You guys know, Simon, do you guys know the sexiest tree? Shumerdope. Bald cypress. Been waiting on that one. You know, the sexiest bird.
00:25:48
Speaker
Bald eagle. I would say I'm going to make a grackle. Stepped into that. Yeah, we did. We just stepped right here. He's like, we're going to say it. It's the yellow eyes. Too easy. Pearson. Too easy. It's too easy. I don't know what a grackle looks like. I'm going to have to. It's not really as pretty as a bald eagle. I'm googling right now as we speak. It's a large scary. We have some, we have some grackles that have like posted up in the bird bath out front. And they will not let, even the bully bujays can't get in.
00:26:37
Speaker
For those of you who don't know what a grapple is and I'm googled again this bird definitely looks like it doesn't take no crap from nobody
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah. They got yellow eyes. They're beady eyes. It's like, you want some? You need some from me, bro? It's a bird designed by Stephen King. He's definitely being the mob. Definitely being the mob. This is a mob. I mean, they call it like I see it. It's no Robin. So we were going to talk about the species list a little bit. So there's a couple of different tables. These aren't all native species. Some of them are non-native. Correct. I am not a native purist in the landscape for what it's worth. If anybody's out there feeling bad about their
00:27:15
Speaker
because some of our natives are getting walked up by insects and diseases, so they're not immune. But I do totally agree with that. A lot of them are pretty tough cookies. They're native for a reason. They're native for a reason. There's no silver bullet in any kind of ag or horticulture. There's room for all, right? Yeah, it's biology. There's never really a firm boundary anywhere. And it's always changing. Ginko's aren't natives. That doesn't mean I love them any less.
00:27:41
Speaker
Right. What natives are kind of looking at a pre-Columbian exchange moment. Why is that the moment we say? It's not the giant sloth moment. Not to get too consistent. Yeah. Why is Italian food associated with tomatoes? You know? That ain't always been that way. Facts.
00:28:06
Speaker
So to get back to these tables. But cheese. Turn these tables back to the table. It has always been about cheese. Anyways, everybody goes cheese. Cheese trees, yes. So yes, there are a list of tables. Some are just about, here's how, here are landscape plants that have a high tolerance to certain, like for example, there's a series of tables at the beginning that there are landscape plants with a high tolerance to air quality issues. And that might be something to reference if you are
00:28:36
Speaker
near where lots of traffic goes by or something like that, things to be aware of. But the kind of master reference table at the end of this document is one that lists, you know, whether or not this is a native species, whether or not it's an approved Lexington tree species, which the Lexington street tree sort of, I don't know what you call it, yeah, ordinance. I was going to say regime.
00:29:03
Speaker
But no ordinance is good. You know, these are trees that don't create a lot of street litter and things like that. So, and you know, it's not everywhere is Lexington, but this is a tree that works. If you were going to plant it in the strip between the sidewalk and the road, these are ones that they're like, that's pretty chill. Yeah, exactly. So it tells you whether or not it's one of those trees, whether or not it's native, what its maximum height is. And then there's a list of ecosystem services that trees can provide. And it tells you what
00:29:32
Speaker
how these species compare to others. Is it good for resistance to storm damage? Things associated with being functional and easily maintained in the landscape. Because even though trees are really great at surviving for a long time, even after you do something that effectively kills them, you will live for 10 more years. But we should also remember that trees in the built environment
00:29:59
Speaker
It's kind of in a not natural environment. Typically trees are in forests where they're surrounded by all their bodies and they can deal with heavy storms and winds. Whereas in the built environment, you might just have a tree loam on the landscape and that's, you know, hard for that tree. So we do have to kind of keep an eye on them and try to help them out. He's a very social tree. Okay. Yes. Likes friends. Yeah. They want to have all these associations and friends all around them to deal with. I did some interesting reading where some of the trees, you take them out of the forest environment.
00:30:29
Speaker
And basically they're much more susceptible to problems breaking and coming down just because they don't have their buddies on either side to act as a web. So yeah, that's interesting when you take them out of their system. It's like, you guys are for me. My little support system. You hold me up in the world.
00:30:48
Speaker
You're like a little pawpaw, and we're like some oaks and hickories and stuff. I'm a little pawpaw. You're a little understory. I'm a little understory. You're too. You're not understory. I'm not. I feel like if anybody's the pawpaw here, it's me. I was going to claim that, but I thought you said pawpaw. I'm sorry. I was going to claim pawpaw, but you said pawpaw. I'm so sorry. You can be a red butt, right?
00:31:13
Speaker
Oh, thank you. Yes. I like that word once to build a dog word. Yes. Yes. Yeah. What is, I mean, since we're on that, that kind of topic, what is either the tree you identify with or your favorite landscape plan?
Personal Affinities for Trees
00:31:26
Speaker
Oh, man. It's like picking a favorite trees, like picking a favorite child. I mean, you could do it, but you're not. It stands out as the best. Whatever I grew up with. It's a stuff I saw. Josh, you go first. Yeah. It's yours.
00:31:41
Speaker
I usually tell people that my favorite one to recommend is the Shumurdo, because it's awesome at everything. It's awesome at everything. But in reality, the tree that I always get excited to see is a ginkgo. Yeah. What's the tree that's like the most humble? Because that would be me. The Joshua tree. So we're going like things that are going to be around Kentucky and somebody will be in the landscape. Okay. I mean, if you want to get wild and like talk about your experiences in Ohio,
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah. Ew. Why? Just kidding. Oh, I only crossed in that river twice. He wants to leave and wants to come back. He wants because I made a wrong turn. I really like recommending the Black Gum, Nissa Silvatica. She's one of my favorite. I don't know where she lands on the list for ecosystem services, although it does provide berries and stuff for Nissa Silvatica. Good resistance to insect pests. Actually, excellent. Excellent.
00:32:39
Speaker
Excellent resistance to disease problems. To my girl. Yeah, good for storm damage resistance. Will grow on poorly drained soil. Will grow in hot, dry areas. Not easy to transplant. That's true. So make a commitment. Put a ring on it. Yes.
00:33:02
Speaker
And she's got a beautiful red fall color. So from a visual perspective, we get pretty red fall color. Nice glossy leaves and you know, you know, all summer long, spraying nice glossy leaves. And I don't know, I named my kid Nissa. I feel like that's a cool name. I don't have one. You did. A Nessie or Nissa? One's a monster and one's a tree. Or both.
00:33:25
Speaker
Okay, monstrous tree. Yeah, monstrous tree. So mystery and mysterious either. I like that one. She's a slow grower, though. I don't know if that's on your list or not, but she's fairly slow growing. So just keep an eye on mine. Yeah, it says fair, fair grow to be fair to be fair. But max is out at like 30. I like the mid story trees. You know, I grew up in the hills. I'm always you guys already mentioned it, the dogwoods and red buds, man. I love those kind of mid size mid story trees. I don't know if they're
00:33:54
Speaker
ones that are recommended, I know they're well adapted to at least the Eastern part. Well, most parts of Kentucky, they're adapted, but they take a specific growing environment because they are kind of mid-story. Just like you, right? You just have to have a specific growing environment. Yeah, that's to flourish. And I'm just showing up only in the spring and the rest of the year I disappear. Yeah, just like that. Yeah. Brett, do you have any favorites? I would say from around here, if I'm going conifer
00:34:22
Speaker
I have a pretty strong affinity for Virginia pine. Not white pine. I really love white pines, but riding around with extension agents who have caught a lot of white pine bodies in their day, or maybe not caught them, but were around when the body was caught. Witnessed, disposed of. If you have not heard of white pine decline,
00:34:46
Speaker
get in line. Because it's tough. Because it's sad. So don't put don't plant any white pines in the landscape out there. Sad. But I would say Virginia pine and then the deciduous side I would say I have a real affinity for hornbeams carpinas in general. Carpinas caroliniana is the American hornbeam. There's also
00:35:10
Speaker
A couple of Korean hornbeams and Japanese hornbeams are really cool. But as far as stuff around here, I would say those are two of my faves. Yeah, big fan. It's a good pick. Beaches. Oh, I love a beet tree. Oh, I love a beet tree. She's a bark animal. She's real cute. The danglers. I heard somebody referring to it as like in the fall when the beech leaves are still there, the ones that still hang on pretty much all winter, the little golden.
00:35:36
Speaker
that it's like being in the forest with a bunch of ghosts. That was me. What if I was like some moron the other day saying about things? Somebody said it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Did you say it on the podcast too, probably?
00:35:51
Speaker
No, I think that was off podcast. But yeah, if you've ever wondered, if you don't know what a beach tree looks like when you drive in, you know, pass some woods or something and all the leaves are gone, but you see those little, little understory trees and they become really big trees, but they're small and they
00:36:08
Speaker
all the leaves are still on, so there's this kind of white, yellow, gold leaf, and they do look like these little ghosts that are just like, like friendly ghosts. Like, if you- Casper. Okay, is anybody in here seeing Brave, the Disney movies? Like the will-o-wisps. They remind me of will-o-wisps, yeah. Disney, please don't sue us, I'm complimenting you. Sorry, Meredith, sorry. They remind me of will-o-wisps. Fairies. Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Sarah Bareilles. Beets.
00:36:37
Speaker
So many good trees, you all. So many good trees. They have beautiful bark, too. I think somebody said that. They do. It's just so, so pretty. Like elephants. It's all about the bark. I love maple trees, too, though. I love, like, I love sugar maples. I love, I love Japanese maples. You know, I like the underdogs, like sycamores, too, which get a bad rap. Oh, man. I love the sycamore bark. You mentioned bark. I'm so sculptural. Yeah. And, like, tortured. Like, yeah. It's tortured. They have a little torture. They have a little architectural aspect to them. They do a lot of interest in the wintertime. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:06
Speaker
Josh was like looking at his chart as we say all these trees and he's like, negative, negative. These are actually all really good trees. Nice. Yeah, American beach. That's an approved Lexington Street tree. Wow. Good job, Lexington. Is that Fagus grandophilia? Yes, it is.
00:37:26
Speaker
I'm so proud of him. Thank you. I'm trying to learn the language. Not in Scottish cousin, Fergus, but Fagan. As a reminder for those of you... That's my cousin Fergus, Grandifolia. Why? Sorry, that was terrible. Please, don't call me Mr. Grandifolia. That's my dad. Call me Fergus. Call me Fergus.
00:37:47
Speaker
Oh, as a reminder, for those of you who maybe forgot, the reason we keep bringing up Lexington is because the university that we work for is in Lexington, the hub of it is. So it's very easy to access their goods. But many of you, some of you might be in areas that have their own ordinances and that kind of thing. But in general, you know, if it's
00:38:11
Speaker
Going by climate zones is a good idea to just make sure that if you're finding something, if you're not in Kentucky and you're listening to this, there might be something similar or some of these species, a lot of the ecosystem services that Josh was talking about are gonna apply no matter where it is, as long as that thing will work in your zone.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think we've touched on all the ecosystem services except for one, which is probably the most nerdy carbon sequestration.
Horticulture and Ecosystem Services
00:38:38
Speaker
Hit me with it. That's on a bigger scale, isn't it?
00:38:43
Speaker
Trees are trees. Trees sequester carbon from the environment, from the atmosphere. Wow. I mean, essentially like half of the weight of a tree, it's literally carbon. And it's pulling that out of the environment and locking it up for, depending on how long the tree lives and what is done with it at the end of its life. Is it converted into something? Is it buried or is it just turned into wood chips and allowed to kind of degrade? But taking a tree out, taking a tree's carbon,
00:39:13
Speaker
out of the atmosphere and holding it for 100 years does have an impact on or can be calculated as global warming potential. So neither my master's on, I don't have to necessarily like talk about this extensively, but I will. Don't tempt him. One thing I did want to just ask, the ecosystem service concept, this comes out of like ecology and ecologies.
00:39:39
Speaker
efforts to communicate with other groups and explain things? Is that right? Am I off base there? Just the central concept of ecosystem services. Is that something that people talk about with other things in the world besides just landscape plants?
00:39:53
Speaker
You know, good question. I believe so. I mean, and pretty much anything can be talked about as being a contributor to ecosystem services and they are that, you know, these are services that come about from the community of
00:40:11
Speaker
structures around you as to whether or not they're providing something as kind of a net benefit, right? It's kind of the like an ecosystem service being the opposite of something in the environment that is toxic, right? Which is creating a drain on everybody or a cost associated with being there. Ecosystem services are things that are being done for us for everyone and not exclusive.
00:40:43
Speaker
Landscape systems are so inclusive and you can look at them so many ways. This is one of the really cool lenses you can use to look at landscapes, one of the features that's just so cool with these large, especially these large installations that are just so complex and have so many facets to them, so many different moving parts. It's just a really cool way to kind of view things is those benefits and sometimes that's
00:40:55
Speaker
Okay, so we should think of all horticulture as what are the ecosystem services?
00:41:10
Speaker
Intended up front in the design and sometimes you kind of conceptualize those benefits later on when you're taking stock of the environment, but really cool Yeah, so so to sum us up here. I think
00:41:22
Speaker
It seems like we've talked about if you are considering doing some landscaping, if you're considering doing adding trees or shrubs or other kinds of plants to your landscape, you can consider, yes, is it the right soil type? Is it the right, do my fertility right? Is the placement in terms of sun or shade or soil moisture? Are those things right? But also don't forget about how within the landscape, the way that that plant is placed, the choice of plants you use can
00:41:49
Speaker
work to serve you, serve the landscape, serve the surrounding biosphere, the plants, the animals, the soil microbes, everything else. And so when you think about that, consider looking at this publication that Josh has mentioned and take a look at these different ecosystem services, these roles that a tree can play in your ecosystem of your landscape, considering things like water management, wind management, sun management, pollution,
00:42:19
Speaker
All those kinds of stuff, carbon sequestration, those are all these elements that you can think about if you're trying, if you have a south facing window that gets super hot in the summertime, put a deciduous tree in front of it. If you have an area where the cold air blows through the window at night and makes your little toes cold in the wintertime, consider maybe a coniferous windbreak there, something like that. Conversely, if you have something that we want to soak up some water or keep an area from flooding as much, you might think about selecting something with that type of functionality.
00:42:48
Speaker
Josh, should I miss, oh yeah, and one other, I guess one other component in the city environments or places where there are a little bit more noisy, noise management, a sound buffer of sorts is another way that you might consider using landscape plants. So I would say if you want to hear us talk about landscape plants and landscaping and ornamentals more, let us know. Alexis will let you know how to get in contact with us, but thank you very much for listening. Thanks Josh for sharing all this stuff.
00:43:16
Speaker
Great publication. Once again, what's the name and number on that publication? HO 121, Ecosystem Services of Landscape Plants, a Guide for Consumers and
Podcast Community Engagement
00:43:25
Speaker
Communities. We'll put a link where you guys can find that. But don't forget to follow us on Instagram at at hortculturepodcast. You can definitely message us on there if that's easier. You can email any of us. All of those emails are available.
00:43:41
Speaker
And if you are curious if you want to hear more about any of this, please let us know I could talk about perennial plants all day would love to talk about landscaping Talk about bonsai if anybody
00:43:56
Speaker
That's what we're talking about. I personally would like for us to do that. But anyways, we hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us. Join us next week. We're going to talk about some myths of horticulture with y'all. So thank you so much, and we'll talk soon.