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Along with the accelerating urbanization process in China, the problem of urban infrastructure layout has become increasingly prominent. The high density of buildings and the extremely unreasonable distribution of infrastructure make the development face great resistance. This paper reveals the problems in the layout of garden infrastructure by studying and analyzing the theoretical foundations of federal learning and distributed learning and provides an in-depth analysis and elaboration of the problem. The paper uses the shape index and landscape index of green infrastructure (green space, arable land, and water bodies), the average width of roads, road network density, and weighted buildings to conduct a comparative study through the differences in ventilation speed and temperature at different layout garden scales. According to the problems existing in the garden layout in the experimental results, corresponding improvement measures are targeted, and the infrastructure layout of the garden is combined with ecology to make the layout within the garden more suitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the mountainous terrain in the urban areas of southwest China, there are a large number of barren slopes in the community unsuitable for construction. These areas, alongside other unusable space which is often cultivated by residents to create informal community vegetable gardens and fruit growing areas, have become a "gray area" for urban management. This paper attempts to study the characteristics of informal community growing, the composition of growers, the motivation for growing, and the satisfaction of residents in urban areas in mountainous southwest China to explore its relative value. The sample area for the study was Yongchuan, Chongqing, Southwest China. Through a field survey, a semantic differential questionnaire, and data analysis, we found that: (1) growers use traditional cultivation methods to grow diverse fruits and vegetables according to the size of the slope, and the scale is so large that it serves as a local food supply; (2) growers are mainly vulnerable groups who use the land for economic gain and green food acquisition; and (3) growers and non-growers are more satisfied with the food supply and economic benefits generated by cultivation, while they are dissatisfied with the environmental and social benefits and the planting process. Satisfaction also varies with age, occupation, income, education, household registration, and farming experience. Based on the findings, this paper presents recommendations for the future transformation and development of informal community cultivation in mountainous areas. The study has implications for the construction of community gardens and urban agriculture in the mountains.

At present, China is at an essential stage in the progress of social civilisation. At the same time, China's current economic level is developing rapidly and the level of urbanisation is also increasing. However, the uncontrolled development of urban space and excessive consumption of land resources have led to many urban ecological and environmental problems. As a result, there is an urgent need to improve the urban habitat. Plant landscaping is an important part of the urban environment. In addition, plant landscaping is also a crucial part of the visual arts and plays a key role in the shaping of urban spaces. In the context of the urban construction boom, people are increasingly demanding quality in the urban environment. Spatial scale, as a vital factor influencing the visual effect of planting, is gradually becoming a focus of landscape design. Urban greening based on plant landscape can not only improve the urban ecological environment and enhance people's quality of life but also resolve the contradiction between the demand for urban green space and the continuous reduction of urban greening land. Therefore, plant landscaping is recognised as a key step towards global sustainable development. However, according to current research and application practice, the development of urban greenery is limited and hindered by the value of plant landscaping and its applications. In addition, no comprehensive theoretical system has yet been established at the plant scale. In other words, there are still problems of scale in plant landscaping, such as unreasonable density, disproportion, and unclear hierarchy. Therefore, this paper begins with the definition of plant spatial scale in the city and analyses plant spatial types and scale characteristics from multiple perspectives, so as to establish an overall knowledge of plant landscaping. After that, through a study of the current situation of plant landscaping in cities, a quantitative analysis of the visual scale of plant space in urban squares is carried out to address the issues of plant scale design in this research. The focus of the analysis is on the scale of plants in relation to related elements. Furthermore, this study explores the influence of visual aesthetic scale and psychological scale on planting based on the functional scale of plant elements. Finally, the above quantitative analyses are applied to derive some relative data criteria and to summarise the design strategies for the spatial scale of planting in the city. The findings of this study can provide some guiding suggestions and references for the future construction of urban greenery, thus promoting the orderly development of plant landscaping in cities., Competing Interests: The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lin Tian.)

As a kind of informal green space more closely related to the built environment, public rooftop gardens (PRGs) are novel green open space and important salutogenic resource for urban residents. It is one of the most easily accessible method for urban residents to be in contact with outdoor or natural elements from the context of high-altitude living. Given its potential health benefits to city dwellers, existing empirical studies are heavily focused on immediate recovery through visually accessing PRGs (through windows), neglecting the possibility of using PRGs physically as a place of interaction. This paper hypothesizes usage patterns will mediate the associations between the environmental characteristics of PRG and users' restoration. This is done through inputting data from 12 typical samples of PRG in Chengdu, China into structural equation model (SEM). Combining the concept of Perceived Sensory Dimensions (PSD) and Perceived Restorativeness Scales (PRS) with the usage patterns of the above samples, this study aims to examine the correlation of environmental characteristics, usage pattern and restoration, in which identify their relative importance in the context of PRGs. Through serials of numerical tests on the model, the study shows that out of the 20 theoretical pathways constructed by the environmental characteristics (x)-usage patterns (m)-restorative effect (y), only 14 forms a significant correlation. In addition, out of all PSDs, social, serene, refuge, space and nature dimensions are induced into restorative effects through four patterns of use: retreat, nature touch, interpersonal interaction and family-bonding activities. The findings also show that social and family-bonding are the most influential independent and mediating variables respectively in achieving restorative effects in the PRG. This study reveals important findings about how usage patterns mediate the association between the PSD and PRS of users. And it also has generated practical implications on how we can design public rooftop gardens from the perspective of restoration, which could potentially be the key to the future survival and development of PRGs in urban environments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chen, Gan, Zhou, Du and Zeng.)

Vegetables play a vital role in human health. However, the average vegetable consumption among Chinese rural residents does not meet the minimum intake (300 g/adult person/day) recommended by the Chinese Dietary Guidelines. Homestead gardening—defined as growing vegetables or other food for home consumption, usually in the backyard of the household or on collectively allocated garden land—can play a significant role in promoting vegetable consumption in rural areas of developing countries. But empirical evidence on the effects of homestead gardening in China is scarce. This paper sheds new insights on the impacts of homestead gardening on rural households' vegetable consumption. We employ the three‐stage procedure instrumental variables methods to disentangle the endogeneity of the homestead garden variable and propensity score matching for robustness check. The results show that homestead gardening increases vegetable consumption by 12.7% on average. Further heterogeneous analysis shows that homestead gardening has a larger effect on those groups with vegetable intake levels in the middle of the distribution. The impact of homestead gardening was strongest for the consumption of dark‐colored vegetables. Our results can provide new perspectives for future rural planning, dietary and nutritional health transformation, and precision policy formulation. [EconLit Citations: Q1, D1, Q13]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human cultivation facilitates the naturalization and subsequent invasion of non-native plant species through, for example, protection from predators or reducing environmental stochasticity. With the development of tourism, non-native plant species have been increasingly introduced into rural home gardens for landscape greening and amenity planting. However, few studies have examined non-native flora in rural home gardens, and in particular the importance of tourism in determining changes of garden non-native flora has not been scrutinized. In this study, we investigated non-native plant species in 135 home gardens across five rural tourism villages in tropical China. Attributes related to garden or household characteristics were also collected through interviews and questionnaires. A distance-based redundancy analysis was then performed to reveal the relationships between the non-native species composition and garden attributes. A total of 338 non-native plant species were recorded in the surveyed gardens. Among them, the majority (63%) were ornamentals, whereas 19% were for nutritional uses and 12% were spontaneous weeds. Gardening preference and distance to tourist attractions governed the non-native compositions, with gardens preferring cultural (ornamental) cultivation or gardens close to tourist attractions having more non-native species. These results highlight an increasing role of tourism in promoting non-native cultivation in rural gardens. Recommendations for species risk assessment, trade and supply regulation, and proper garden management are provided to help harness plant invasion along tourism development in rural China and other regions around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordination between leaf and root traits is conducive to an integrated understanding of whole-plant ecological strategies and reveals how community composition and diversity contribute to defining the functions and services of ecosystems. However, there is limited understanding regarding the impact of species richness and trait categories on the coordination between leaf and root traits. Based on a 9-year common garden experiment, we investigated the leaf and fine root traits of 56 plots (25.8 m × 25.8 m) encompassing various trait categories (trait categories were defined according to the root depth, leaf habit, and mycorrhizal type) and different levels of species richness (1, 2, 4, 8) in the context of a forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning experiment conducted in subtropical China (BEF-China). We found the following: (1) Our findings indicate that there was generally a significant difference in leaf traits, occasionally in absorptive root traits, and no difference in transport root traits between different trait categories. (2) Conversely, species richness significantly influenced all transport root traits except root nitrogen and most leaf and absorptive root traits. (3) The results demonstrated that trait categories played a crucial role in the coordination between leaf and fine root traits. Additionally, the coordination between leaf and fine root traits increased with higher species richness, particularly in deep-rooted, evergreen, and ectomycorrhizal fungi species. Furthermore, the coordination between leaf and fine root traits was significantly lower in monocultures compared to four- and eight-species mixtures. These results suggest that a significant mixture effect exists in the coordination between leaf and fine root traits due to the comprehensive and divergent capture of above- and belowground resources and reduced intraspecific competition. Therefore, compared to monocultures, mixed-species stands can enhance the coordination of leaf and fine root traits, and it is advisable to establish forests with mixtures of more than four species, dominated by deep-rooted, evergreen, and ectomycorrhizal fungi species, to maintain ecosystem stability and functional integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been "tea-travel" resources combining tea gardens and tourism long ago. Chinese people pay more and more attention to the spiritual consumption demand, but they have been criticized because of their imperfect development. Although many experts and scholars have conducted research on this, they have not obtained valid results. However, with the development of modern science and technology agriculture, the emergence of organic agriculture can undoubtedly contribute to the sustainable development of tea garden ecotourism. Therefore, this article is based on the versatility of artificial intelligence technology and organic agriculture, starting from its definition and functional characteristics, combined with the current situation and development requirements of tea garden ecotourism, and deeply analyzes the sustainable development of tea garden ecotourism, ideas, and models in order to provide a reference for the development of ecotourism in China's tea gardens. This paper uses the data analysis method, comparison method, questionnaire survey method, and other methods to first theoretically summarize the multifunctionality of organic agriculture and tea garden ecotourism and then takes Lushan Yunwu Tea Garden as an example to investigate the tea plantation area of Lushan in 2019 reaching 150,000 mu. The annual output reaches 20,000 tons, and the annual output value reaches 2.342 billion yuan; the plantation area of tea gardens in the country is expanded to 45.997 million mu in 2019, the output value increases to 25.47 billion yuan, and the sales volume reaches about 2 million tons. Research shows that based on artificial intelligence technology, the sustainable tea garden ecotourism market has broad prospects and good development prospects. The unique regional development model of Lushan Yunwu Tea Garden is worthy of reference for many domestic tea garden ecotourism scenic spots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, landscape archaeology has undergone a paradigm shift from traditional theoretical methods to being practically oriented, with the advent of the widespread application of philosophical theories (such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and others) and the emerging new technologies in social sciences. Nevertheless, landscape archaeology has not been able to garner the attention it requires from Chinese archaeology, which fails to understand its significance behind the systematic regional survey methods. Rather, for a long time, the study of the man-land relationship has been considered to be a part of environmental archaeology. Besides, the landscape elements in archaeological excavations were often considered as mechanical interactions between people and the environment, resulting in a lack of holistic and systematic research on a selection of archaeological sites. The focus however has remained restricted to the earthen remains and relics in the archaeological process. The Northern Wei Dynasty was the first nomadic regime to control the Central Plains in the Chinese history and moved its capital three times for the purpose of sinicization. The recent archaeological excavations of the ancient city of Shengle, imperial palaces, tombs, sacrificial sites, gardens, Yinshan palaces, and the border defense facilities during the Shengle period of the Northern Wei Dynasty have revealed several phenomena and evidence of the cultural integration of the various ethnic groups. As mentioned earlier, the limitations in the research horizon have led to the in-depth analysis and research of archaeological relics and archaeological data during this period seeking the desired attention. This study considers landscape archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and history as the primary research methods pertinent to the above situation. It considers archaeological relics and archaeological data from the prosperous period as the research object and thoroughly analyses the relationship between the people and the earthen landscape relics, to reveal the social culture, the religious beliefs, the politics, and the military behind the integration of the multi-ethnic culture, along with the cognition of the natural environments, the social structures, and the religious spaces. Simultaneously, the analysis results would also endeavor to integrate the artifacts, the relics (space, structure, layout, and locational relationship), road grids, surrounding environment, and several other surface space elements to restore and reproduce the prosperous social and cultural situations scenes of the bygone period. The final outcome shall become a typical research case. By comparing and combing the archaeological discoveries of the Northern and the Southern Dynasties of China and the pertinent archaeological data, we could further understand and explain the multi-ethnic cultural development and evolution while providing an essential theoretical basis for the present social and cultural research on the Northern Wei Dynasty in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a special garden unique to China, the front garden of multi-storey residential buildings has certain public attributes but is managed by a single owner. In this study, the front gardens of multi-storey residential buildings in Jiangsu province, China, were set as research object. Meanwhile, the size of garden, plant type, plant vertical structure, color number, plant coverage, and fence material were chosen as the landscape features to be explored. Then the experiments were conducted to reveal the visual impact assessment rendered by the public with different demographic attributes and the results obtained were analyzed. As is indicated by the statistical analysis, significant differences exist between the owners and the public in their visual impact assessments of the front gardens; the six landscape features are the main factors that influence the public's visual impact assessment; and the public with different demographic attributes would render different visual impact assessments of front gardens. This study offers valuable help for the design of front gardens of multi-storey residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fraxinus americana L. (white ash), a native North American tree commonly cultivated for its ornamental qualities, displayed symptoms of leaf spot disease in a sentinel garden located in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, in 2022. This disease led to premature leaf shedding, adversely affecting the plant's growth and substantially diminishing its ornamental value. Potential fungal pathogens were isolated from the diseased leaves and the subsequent application of Koch's postulates confirmed the pathogenicity of the fungal isolates (BL-1, BL-2). Through a combination of multi-locus phylogenetic analysis, including ITS, ACT, ApMat, CAL, CHS-1, GAPDH, and TUB2, alongside morphological assessments, the fungus was conclusively identified as Colletotrichum jiangxiense. This represents the first record of C. jiangxiense affecting white ash, highlighting the important role of sentinel gardens in uncovering novel pathogen–plant host interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines spatial poetics, landscape architecture theory and humanistic geographical ideology, analyzing Tang Dynasty Poet Bai Juyi’s . . . aesthetics of multi-layer landscape architecture on the waterscape of his Lü-dao Garden . . . This paper is divided into five parts. Part One discusses Bai Juyi's Lü-dao Garden as the typical “Dream Home;” the poet projected his subjective values and conducted multi-layer landscape architecture to shape his wooded garden, and waterscape is a crucial element in this project. Part Two discusses the aspect of the material environment in landscape architecture. Livi-dao Garden, with a pond in the center surrounded by meandering water paths, creates a focal point to showcase variations and can be appreciated from 360 degrees. It also offers a space allowing for wandering endlessly in loops. Thirdly, discuss the aspect of the artistic scene which Bai Juyi's created with the arrangement of surrounding waterscapes under the bed, producing the exclusive delight of “comer space” and symbolic imagery of lounging gestures above water. The reflection in the water is used to establish a microcosm, liberating conventional relationships when viewing the space. By re-organizing sceneries from South of the Yangzi River, he created a miniature homeland based on his memory; a transcendental angle is used as if lying on a boat to review the self's perspective. Part Four discusses landscaping actions involved in accordance with the ultimate spiritual principles. Bai Juyi applied a method of contemplative investigation in researching matters and efforts in meditative Zen practices to create a deep, distilled and lucid state for Lu-dao Garden as the ultimate spiritual principle, constructing a blissful condition of self-containment and perfection. Part Five is the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing interest in Chinese gardens, there is a lack of research on Changsha Gardens. Through document retrieval, review, and map analysis, we reconstructed the Changsha Gardens during the Ming Dynasty. Our findings reveal that gardening flourished in Changsha during this period. The royal gardens, dominated by literati aesthetics, set the trend for development, while the landscaping techniques were influenced by Jiangnan Gardens. Private gardens placed more emphasis on artistic mood and cultural implications. Landscape architects incorporated towers, terraces, and suburban mountain gardening to borrow scenery. The use of spring water to create landscapes and the rectangular shapes of the water bodies reflected Neo-Confucianism and practical functions. Planting design focused on meaning over form, with landscapes used to commemorate sages and promote the farming and reading culture and other Confucian values. However, it relied too much on borrowing natural scenery and the pragmatism of the Hunan culture, which might have affected the progress of landscaping techniques and the development of Changsha Gardens. Changsha Gardens were not as skilled as Jiangnan Gardens, and the style was not as prominent as other regional schools of gardens. This might be the reason why Changsha Gardens have not become one of the regional schools of gardens in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rockery is often a key element of a Classical Chinese Garden. It's exquisite detailed physical characteristics a major contributor to artistic value, aesthetic appeal, and the carrier of historical and cultural heritage values. Poets and scholars have often described the beauty of these places in classical gardens in qualitative terms but lacked the quantitative tools to provide replicable metric descriptions. The highly complex forms and surfaces, irregularity, and fragility of garden rockeries has challenged authors to accurately describe the characteristics of these qualities using traditional methods and tools. This article presents a new method of digital characterization approach based on laser scanning and point cloud visualization, which can quantitatively detect and represent the pattern of rockery surface textures. It offers a replicable accurate quantitative descriptor of the Classical Chinese rockery. The Small-Rock Mountain Retreat, a nationally protected rockery garden in China, has been used as a case study. It contains original historic elements and more recently restored areas. Two characteristics of rockery surfaces, including the well-proportioned density and space, and the proper contrast between solid and void, were analyzed by examining four attributes: (1) surface complexity; (2) contour curvature; (3) shape variation; and (4) the interweaving of lightness and darkness. The findings demonstrate that, despite some similarities between the restored portion of the rockery and the historical remnants, there are variances in the richness of the details and the balanced distribution of shape change. The digital characterization approach introduced in this article offers a new perspective for recording and in turn safeguarding Chinese garden rockeries and other irregular cultural heritage objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Traditional Gardens (CTGs) are an important part of China's cultural inheritance from the past. Today's China has experienced rapid urbanization, raising the need for a new form of contemporary gardens intended to satisfy peoples' need for traditional culture. Garden paths are important in CTGs; they are designed to show visitors changing views with each step, and to lead them to secluded, quiet places via winding paths. This enhances the ornamental interest of the gardens. Based on plane graphics, this study evaluates the characteristics of three types of garden paths in fourteen traditional gardens and a contemporary antique garden, the Daguan Garden in Beijing. The analysis uses correlation and factor analysis to integrate 28 quantitative path indicators into five aspects of average, scale, network, wide, and aggregation. The 28 indicators can be expressed by six simple indicators: average connection length, number of path sections, alpha index, average width, average tortuous angle, and concentration degree. The results show small variations of garden paths between traditional gardens, but a considerable difference between the contemporary garden and traditional gardens. The research proposes a framework for the quantification and comparison of garden path features that can be applied before and after garden path construction, for both ancient and modern garden styles. This framework generates garden path feature values and theoretical values of six indicators, and is not constrained by the garden scale. Therefore, it provides an accurate and efficient design tool for garden designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of local adaptation in populations of chinaberry (Melia azedarach L.) are important for clarifying patterns in the population differentiation of this species across its natural range. M. azedarach is an economically important timber species, and its phenotype is highly variable across its range in China. Here, we collected M. azedarach seeds from 31 populations across its range and conducted a common garden experiment. We studied patterns of genetic differentiation among populations using molecular markers (simple sequence repeats) and data on phenotypic variation in six traits collected over five years. Our sampled populations could be subdivided into two groups based on genetic analyses, as well as patterns of isolation by distance and isolation by environment. Significant differentiation in growth traits was observed among provenances and families within provenances. Geographic distance was significantly correlated with the quantitative genetic differentiation (QST) in height (HEIT) and crown breadth. Climate factors were significantly correlated with the QST for each trait. A total of 23 climatic factors were examined. There was a significant effect of temperature on all traits, and minimum relative humidity had a significant effect on the survival rate over four years. By comparing the neutral genetic differentiation (FST) with the QST, the mode of selection acting on survival rate varied, whereas HEIT and the straightness of the main trunk were subject to the same mode of selection. The variation in survival rate was consistent with the variation in genetic differentiation among populations, which was indicative of local adaptation. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the responses of the phenological traits of M. azedarach to changes in the climate conditions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about the publication titled "Botany in China: Report of the Botanical Society of America Delegation to the People's Republic, May 20-June 18, 1978," edited by Anitra Thorhaug. The publication summarizes the journey of 10 American botanists in China. It addresses features of the trip, a brief commentary on the organizational aspects of Chinese botany, the major research directions in the discipline areas familiar to the American team, and concise descriptions of the institutions visited in eight cities. The last section of the publication includes 36 institutions, gardens and academic facilities of China.

This article compares the morphological structures of two parks: Disneyland and Yuanmingyuan, the "summer palace" of the emperor of China. Despite obvious differences, the two parks were intended for the entertainment of the sovereigns of their respective countries -- the emperor of China and "the people" in the case of the United States. Both parks were also designed to bring ontological reassurance to the sovereigns of two empires that only recently had attained their hegemonic, imperial, status. The parks provided a vision of a universe organized according to each sovereign's specifications. The need for reassurance is reflected in the morphology of the two parks: the use of techniques of dislocation and idealization; the model-making and the use of thematized environments. A study of the morphology of the parks is for that reason a study of imperial ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the gardens in Sichuan, China. Types of gardens in China; Isolation of Sichuan from the rest of China; Historical background of Sichuan.