Ecology and Plants I

Catalog description

LARCH 145 introduces students to plants, their ecological context, threats to ecosystems and the various roles that landscape architects play in the design of healthy ecosystems. Plants are central to landscape architecture. On the one hand, plants are one of the primary form-giving components in the landscape architects' palette. At the same time, plants occupy a central place in the ecosystems with which landscape architects interact on all scales of intervention in the landscape. The course is divided into two parts. The first introduces the concepts of plant communities and ecosystems through lectures while providing an introduction to identifying specific native and ornamental, woody and herbaceous plants through field observation - most within their ecological context. The second part of the course consists of lectures introducing the essential roles that landscape architects play as they interact with ecosystems in the landscape at a variety of scales. Here, students are introduced to ecosystem disturbance, the water cycle, issues related to water in the urban landscape, restoration ecology, ecological restoration, and landscape ecology. Finally, students are presented with a series of case studies that demonstrate how landscape architects, with allied professionals, work to apply ecological principles in build design projects. Knowledge gained in LARCH 145 will be applied throughout the remainder of the landscape architecture curriculum.