The Value of Woody Landscape
Plants. Woody
landscape plants grown in the US include nearly 1500 genera
of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and vines from around the
world. Landscape plants enhance the quality of life by directly
affecting aspects of esthetic, environmental, and psychological
well-being. Landscape plants contribute to the economic and
cultural value of public, commercial, recreational, and residential
spaces by creating beauty, ameliorating air and noise pollution,
providing shade, improving energy conservation, providing
visual and physical barriers, stabilizing slopes for erosion
control, restoration of damaged ecosystems, supporting wildlife,
and lessening the effects of urban heat islands and global
climatic change in addition to many other engineering functions
and ecological services. Environmental horticulture ranks
third in the nation in gross agricultural cash receipts with
more than a $50 billion economic impact, and creates nearly
half a million US jobs. Many plants with landscape value are
also important for food, medicine, fiber, building materials,
biofuels, and many other industrial uses. As such, woody landscape
plants represent a natural resource of considerable economic,
strategic, and cultural importance.
