Evaluation of plant species in home gardens: A case study of Batumi city (Adjara)

Abstract

The home vegetation features in urban landscapes play an important role as indicators of urban biodiversity potential. They are also ornamental resources in the context of landscape appreciation for the human environment. This study gives information about existing plant species that have already been determined and evaluated according to plant characteristics (aesthetic ; visual, functional, socio-cultural and ecological) in the gardens of detached houses and housing estates in home areas in the city centre of Batumi. Therefore, this paper provides quantitative information on the distribution of plant species in the urban residential landscape areas of Batumi city (Adjara). This study covers a total of 100 home gardens. The home gardens are mainly based on 4 different types which are traditional housing, detached housing, villa, and apartment blocks-housing estates. The results showed that there were 147 species from 61 different families in these home gardens. There are more exotic species in residential gardens. Furthermore, the richness of species and diversity are positively related to new urban development areas. However, it was clearly determined that the vegetation structure has a tendency towards ornamental purposes, which is different from detached housing gardens and villa gardens where fruit and other benefiting species are available.

Keywords

• floral and landscape assessment
• home garden vegetation
• urban biodiversity
• batumi (adjara)
• flora ve peyzaj değerlendirmesi
• konut bahçesi bitkileri
• kentsel biyoçeşitlilik
• batum (acara)