Sustainable management of urban landscapes with wildflowers

Urban derelict soils are characterized by low content of nutrients and organic matter. They also lack in structure and water holding capacity. These problems are very serious when growing traditional kind of ornamentals: horticultural plants such as flowering shrubs, borders of annuals and so on, that require nitrogen and high quality soil. On the other hand, wild herbaceous flowers sown on these soils create beautiful vegetal communities and improve biodiversity, with little maintenance. In Italy this practice is not widespread. The projects carried out in Tuscany (Italy) for the last eight years are reviewed. The work focused on adapting wildflower cultivation techniques to the Mediterranean pedo-climatic conditions. More than 20 species (annuals and perennials) which showed good performance and most suited to this area were selected. Local Councils were involved and public green spaces were successfully cultivated with wildflowers. Matter of the study was also related to the seed production of these plants at large scale.