No matter what latitude they are in, how old they are, whether they have a small or large population or who runs them, the vast majority of cities in the world have one thing in common: they like to plant flowers to look beautiful. You are facing your neighbors. And I am facing my visitors. The problem is that not all of them make the right decision when it comes to how to decorate themselves. Murcia has left a magnificent example.

His case tells us something much more interesting: the lack of purpose in deciding what species to plant in cities’ flowerbeds and parks.

Decorating the city. That’s what Murcia did at the end of winter. Like many other municipalities across the country, the City Council decided to decorate its streets with original flowers. On March 7, the City Council issued a statement announcing that 250 workers from the Parks and Gardens Service had begun planting flowers to decorate the city during Easter and the Spring Festival.

The statement noted that around 100,000 seasonal flower plants were exhibited, among which were daisies (20,000), petunias (5,000), kalanchoes (50,000), geraniums (9,000), gitanillas (2,000), dimorphothecas (3,000) and begonias (2,000), tagetes (15,000), carnations (12,000) and hydrangeas (1,500), a species characterized by their need for shade and water.

The debate grows in X. Months later, the flowers on the streets of Murcia are back on the agenda, albeit for a very different reason. A few days ago HuffPost And Murcia’s View They published two articles in which they talked about the uproar unleashed on X by the photograph of a farmer in Murcia, more specifically a farmer with brown, apparently dry plants on Avenida Constitución.

Both pieces come from the same source: a tweet published by the user @jjizquierdo2012, showing a nursery on Avenida de Constitución, in the urban area of ​​Murcia, where, according to its author, a row of hydrangeas has been punished by lack of sun and water. The plants are so damaged that not a single speck of green, not even the slightest bit of color, can be seen in the flowers. The tweet is dated July 19, but it does not specify when the photo was taken.

Is it a matter of “optimism”? It may seem like a simple anecdote, but the image was so powerful that the post went viral with hundreds of thousands of views without the City Council needing to speak or the photo’s author needing to provide further explanation.

Actually here’s another one just a day after the first photo.

“I hope I have the optimism of someone who decides to plant hydrangeas in full sun in Murcia,” said another user, ironically, referring to the Hydrangea genus, which is native to Asia, although it is possible to find them in different parts of the world. Spain requires very specific conditions: shade or semi-shade and water, especially water, two “ingredients” that are not abundant in Murcia in summer, especially in June, July and August, with little rain. The average temperature in the region last summer was 26 degrees, with the average maximum temperature exceeding 30 degrees.

A unique case? No. Murcia may be the most recent and most talked about example, but it is certainly not the only city in Spain that has decided to opt for species that, for one reason or another, are not fully adapted to their characteristics or simply pose a risk to their ecosystem. This happened recently in Zaragoza, where the Friends of the Earth Aragon collective asked the City Council to remove exotic shrub species planted in the Campos del Canal.

Reason: The environmental group says three of the four species are foreign to the Ebro Valley and Aragon, and one of them, Spiraea japonica, It came from the Far East and is registered as an invader in 18 countries.

“A major threat”Last year, Ecologists at Work issued a similar warning in Madrid, where the City Council had planted specimens of an exotic species classified as invasive in the renovated Plaza de España. “The choice of species, far from contributing to the re-naturalization of the square, represents a major threat to the biodiversity of the capital,” the group denounced, before pointing directly at the grass. Pennisetum villosumIncluded in the Spanish Catalogue of Invasive Exotic Species (EEI).

Total and follow-up of cases. The list of questionable choices made by the councils is long. And above all very diverse. In Murcia, the discussion on the networks focused on the suitability of the species considering the climate. There are other cases where discussions have arisen due to the use of invasive species or the difficulty of maintaining the garden due to lack of water. The drought that has shaken part of the country in recent months has in fact affected the gardens of many cities.

Water struggle. Going further, in Barcelona, ​​water scarcity has recently destroyed hundreds of trees in less than a year. To be precise, Newspaper It speaks of 2,000 deaths in 10 months, the vast majority (80%) of which can be attributed to drought. A year ago, in Seville, the regional press reported that around thirty young ash trees had been lost due to inadequate irrigation. This is not the only thing that has happened. Lack of water is a problem in Málaga, Córdoba and Madrid, while in Valencia, climate change is estimated to affect more than 15,000 trees.

In other cases, the selection of shrubs and trees that adorn city streets fails for simpler reasons that have little to do with drought. This happens, for example, with species that can cause allergic reactions in part of the population or are even toxic. In 2009, a group of Vigo residents warned that the flowerbeds in their newly renovated neighborhood were full of jimsonweed. Of course, the opposite also happens: there are municipalities that are congratulated for choosing species that can reduce the risk of fire.

Good, yes; but… is it enough? In other cases, the problem is not how the climate affects plants or their ability to adapt to cities, but rather the risk they represent, as the cases of Zaragoza and Madrid show. In 2023, the Efe agency reiterated the demand of environmentalists and scientists for municipalities to be involved in the prevention and elimination of IAS.

As an example, they mentioned that in Alcalá de Henares, apart from its ornamental value, it is possible to find specimens of pampas duster “very well maintained” in many intersections, despite the Government warning that it belongs to a genus , Cortaderia, “which poses a threat to indigenous biodiversity.

The role of city councils“Historically, municipal councils have contributed to the expansion of some IAS due to their competence in parks and gardens,” says Javier Oscoz, of the University of Navarra. In addition to the pampas duster, there are other examples: allianthus, butterfly bush or summer line, mimosa and false acacia… “It is important that they are aware of their power: you can see the pampas duster in many gardens, although there are eradication campaigns and nurseries no longer sell them,” insisted Ecologistas en Acción.

Pictures | Murcia City Council and X

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