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Conditions in modern cities can be as challenging as the most hostile natural environments. Wind, in particular, can be a problem, as the ‘street canyons’ formed by modern high-rise facades funnel ferocious winds to street level. This may provide welcome ventilation and cooling for human inhabitants, but for plants it raises the problem of high evaporative demand, when water is drawn from the leaves faster than it can be replenished at the roots. Plants that are adapted not just to survive, but to thrive in such breezy conditions are therefore a valuable tool in the urban planting palette.
Baccharis patagonica in the Daisy family (Asteraceae) is an evergreen cushion shrub from the exposed southern regions of Chile and Argentina that is both wind- and salt-tolerant. It forms a naturally domed shape without the need for annual clipping, in a similar way to some hebes. The leaves are small, thick-textured and glossy green, densely arranged around the shoots. Creamy-white flowers, pink in bud, are clustered towards the ends of the shoots, blooming in late spring and then maturing into hairy seedheads reminiscent of groundsel (Senecio). Both leaves and flowers are aromatic.
Hardy to -15°C, the plant weathers moderate winters, though is unlikely to tolerate continental cold. It copes well with the dry soils typical of city sites, showing itself at its best when grown hard in an exposed position where the conditions will keep it compact (in shade the growth becomes sparse and drawn). Planted at close spacing and allowed to merge, the shrubs can be clipped (with hedge trimmers) into cloud forms, and are useful candidates for evergreen hedging on windy sites. A readiness to break and rapidly flush from pruning cuts (even towards the base) means that plants are easily renovated after periods of neglect.
By Martin Deasy, a UK-based horticulturist and landscape designer. Originally published in the June 2025 edition of FloraCulture International.
