Wild Garen Design by using local plants to create ecological landscapes
William Robinson (1838-1935), while studying native British plants, realized, "There was much beauty in our native flowers and trees, which should be taught to every child at school." Then, a new kind of gardening aesthetics, known as wild gardening, was established. Wild gardening mimics natural plant communities by using local plants to create ecological landscapes, incorporating green design, environmental protection, and energy-saving principles. Establishing a small urban green area with native plants would provide various ecological values.
In this approximately 5.3 square meters Zhubei Winbond wild garden, 21 species of native plants found in the natural environment of Taiwan are chosen. By using these species, it breaks away from traditional gardening aesthetics, which means plants are no longer evergreen and uniform but exhibit more pronounced seasonal changes. When spring arrives, grasses and flowers quietly sprout, turning into lush greenery by summer. However, Lycoris radiata and Lycoris aurea are different; they start to shed their leaves. When all the leaves have fallen, the flower blooms, and autumn begins. Most plants bloom and bear fruit in autumn, but some plants like Artemisia japonica, Lilium longiflorum var. formosanum, Lilium longiflorum var. scabrum, and Cirsium lineare gradually wither and enter dormancy, waiting for the next spring.
This design aligns with environmental protection issues in ESG, emphasizing our commitment to environmental sustainability. All the plants used in the Zhubei Winbond wild garden are native. It also aligns with SDG 15 on conserving terrestrial ecosystems. Among the 21 selected species, one is assessed as Critically Endangered, three as Endangered, and three as Vulnerable in the Red List of Vascular Plants of Taiwan, embodying both conservation and educational significance.
Introduction to Winbond's Wild Garden
Perennial herbaceous with upright stems, basal branching, and smooth surfaces. Single leaves with serrated edges arranged oppositely, with pink or white flowers.
Perenvnial herbaceous with erect stems, hairy or nearly smooth, branching above. Leaves alternate, succulent, densely covered in woolly hairs, with serrated margins resembling spears or lances. Numerous terminal corymbose flower clusters, white to blue purple.
Perennial herbaceous with erect stems, densely covered in silver hairs. Leaves thin, lanceolate, lobed, and silver-hairy beneath. Head-like inflorescences with yellow flowers.
Perennial herbaceous with fragrant and many branches. Papery leaves with serrated margins resembling teeth. Oval or ball-shaped capitulum.
Perennial herbaceous tilt outward, white-hairy. Yellow cymes with inverted heart-shaped.
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Perennial herbaceous with erect, slender stems, sparsely branched, and linear-lanceolate leaves The leaves are arranged in whorls or alternately, and they are linear-lanceolate, fleshy, or papery. The flowers are solitary or arranged in racemes, trumpet-shaped, white with purple-brown stripes, and fragrant.
Perennial herbaceous with tulip bulbs, yellow or pale yellow in color; erect stems, slightly thick, and hairless. Leaves are alternate, sessile, and needle-shaped or lanceolate, with lance-ovate or lanceolate shapes and entire margins. The flowers are terminal, white, and shaped like a "suona".
Perennial herbaceous with an almost spherical rhizome covered in dark brown scales. Basal leaves are fleshy and thick, broadly linear with a gradually tapering upper part, purple at the base, yellowish-green on the upper side, and grayish-green on the underside. Flowers emerge before the leaves, arranged in terminal racemes with short stalks, and have yellow to golden corollas.
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Perennial herbaceous with broadly elliptic or nearly spherical rhizomes, covered in purplish-brown skin. Leaves are linear or lanceolate, fleshy, blunt or pointed at the apex, with entire margins, green on the upper side, and pale white on the underside. Flowers have red or white corollas.
Evergreen woody vine with strongly rounded branches covered in coarse hairs. Leaves are whorled or opposite, oblanceolate to broadly lanceolate, with entire margins resembling those of Nerium oleander. Racemose inflorescences with bell-shaped involucral scales, pale yellow or purple-yellow. Blooms occur from March to June. The entire plant is toxic, causing inflammation, itching, and swelling upon contact with the skin; ingestion of stems and leaves can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms.
Caespitose, slender stems, leaves arranged alternately are linear-shaped like bamboo leaves, also known as "bamboo orchid". During winter, stems and leaves wither, and new shoots grow from the perennial roots the following year. From July onwards, inflorescences appear at the stem apex, with flowers light pink in color, lip petals edged with purple-red stripes, a yellow keel in the middle, resembling a bird spreading its wings, hence also known as "Bird Orchid". The fruit is a five-angled capsule.
Perennial herbaceous with cylindrical rhizomes, creeping horizontally. Leaves resemble those of orchids, narrow lanceolate in shape, slightly narrowed at the base to form sheaths, overlapping or clasping the stem, with serrated margins and a midrib on the back. Terminal cone-shaped inflorescences branch out sparsely in green-white, pale yellow to bluish-purple.
Perennial herbaceous with upright stems, often branching, hairy or hairless. Leaves are sharply lanceolate, with irregular shallow lobes along the margin, covered with short hairs or hairless; upper leaves are smaller, linear-lanceolate, with prickles along the margin. Capitulum with longest inflorescence, globose in shape; all flowers are tubular.
Semi-shrub perennial herb, forming tufted clusters, erect, with short villous hairs. Leaves alternate or whorled, sessile, linear-lanceolate, entire, narrow and pointed, resembling leaves of oleander. Compound racemose inflorescences, bracts campanulate, pale yellow or purple-yellow. Blooms from March to June. The entire plant is toxic, causing inflammation, itching, swelling, etc., if skin-sensitive individuals in touch with its sap; ingestion of stems and leaves can cause vomiting, diarrhea, etc.
Perennial herbaceous. Rhizomes thick, deep-rooted. Basal leaves in rosette, triangular-ovate, acute apex, cordate base, dentate margin; with long petioles. Flowers purple, with long pedicels longer than the leaves.
Perennial herbaceous with fragrance, stems erect and clustered, leaves with lobed truncate portions. Inflorescences paired, most arranged in pairs to form aggregate racemes, presenting a conical shape, and colored reddish-brown or purple.
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Deciduous shrub or small tree, with gray twigs, green tender shoots, hairless or sparsely covered with soft hairs. Leaves with broadly obtuse to acute apices, irregularly serrated margins, and small glands at the tips of the teeth. Flowers solitary or in pairs, blooming simultaneously with the leaves, with pink petals, and ovate or elliptic in shape.
Perennial herbaceous with pseudobulbs, spherical or spindle-shaped, with stem leaves withering and falling off in winter, but the pseudobulbs remaining in the soil to survive the winter. Leaves linear, curved, and leathery. Flowers borne terminally, purple, with scattered small spots.
Evergreen shrub or vine, small and prostrate with trailing vines, the entire plant smooth, with slender, reddish-brown twigs, and numerous aerial roots emerging from stem nodes. Leaves alternate, with petioles, elongated obovate to inverted ovate, blunt at both ends, with entire margins, and covered with coarse hairs on both surfaces. The inconspicuous fruit is stalkless, solitary, nearly spherical, with a prominent apex, and covered with fine hairs.
Deciduous large shrub or small tree, entire plant densely covered with stiff, rough hairs, not stellate. Leaves opposite, thick and papery, nearly round. Flowers solitary in leaf axils at branch tips, corolla nearly bell-shaped, petals nearly circular. Blooms from September to December. Flowers are white or pink in the morning when they open, turning purple-red or pink by late afternoon to evening before wilting.
Perennial herbaceous with clustered succulent roots, a small terrestrial orchid. It has fleshy roots growing underground, with slender or stout cylindrical rhizomes; stems very short, deciduous in winter, and sprouting in spring. Leaves are linear-lanceolate, sessile, clustered and fleshy. Terminal or axillary spike-like inflorescences, stemless, with numerous small flowers arranged spirally, in red, pink, or white colors; the flowers spiral along the flower axis like a dragon winding around a pillar, hence the alternate name "Dragon Wrapped Pillar". Also known as the "Qingming Grass" because it blooms during the Tomb-sweeping Day(Qingming Festival).
**Threatened Categories refers to The Red List of Vascular Plants of Taiwan, 2017
