CHAPTER III 



CLASSIFICATION OF PLANT MATERIAL FOR USE IN 

 PLANTING DESIGN 



GIVEN a thorough and accurate knowledge of plant material, 

 the planting designer finds his work made much easier by a 

 classification of this material according to physical character- 

 istics, which determine the adaptability of any species to any particu- 

 lar use both from aesthetic and practical standpoints- 

 Plant material may first be classified under two main heads 

 woody and herbaceous. Woody plants include trees, shrubs, and 

 vines, whose stems harden or become "woody", and whose tops resume 

 growth at the point where they stopped at the end of the preceding 

 growing season. Herbaceous plants are those whose tops die back 

 entirely each year, and whose stems are "soft". In the case of 

 annuals, the whole plant dies, leaving its seed for reproduction. 



Woody plants are subdivided into deciduous and evergreen. 

 Deciduous plants lose their leaves at the end of each growing season 

 and renew them the next year. Evergreen plants have green leaves 

 throughout the year. According to height and habit of growth woody 

 plants are also classed as trees, shrubs and vines. Some trees are so 

 small or slow of growth that they are used as large shrubs. 



Evergreens are either "coniferous" or "broad-leaved"- Conifer- 

 ous evergreens are those that bear cones, and incidentally most conifers 

 have "needle" foliage. Broad-leaved evergreens do not bear cones, 

 and they have broad leaves like deciduous plants. There are three 

 plants known as "deciduous conifers", two of which bear cones the 

 Tamarack, or Larch, and the Bald Cypress, and one of which bears 

 drupes, the Ginkgo or Maidenhair Tree, all three being deciduous. 



Most conifers are trees, but there are some dwarf varieties that 

 are classed as "evergreen shrubs" ; and the juvenile forms of the trees 

 are used a great deal in plantings of medium height, with the intention 

 of replacing them with new juvenile forms when they outgrow their 

 purpose. Broad-leaved evergreens include trees, shrubs and vines, 

 such as Magnolia, Rhododendron and Euonymus. 



