Plant Identification: Shrubs

ARCH X 472.8B

Focusing on understory plants and their communities, instruction focuses on selecting and placing appropriate plant material to influence the landscape architect's overall site composition.

View Course Options

What you can learn.

Understand the role of plants in articulating landscape spaces
Identify growth habits, dimensions, cultural requirements, and use of plants in landscape design
Select plants based on spatial needs/constraints; climate and microclimate; soils; water requirements, etc.
Identify plants using botanical nomenclature and common names
Navigate common references to retrieve plant information

About this course:

One of the two required plant material courses, focusing on plants, their communities, and their place in the landscape. Instruction focuses on plant materials that often influence the landscape architect's overall site composition. This course focuses on medium-scale materials, such as shrubs, vines, ground covers, and special-effects plants used to fulfill specific site requirements; companion plant groupings; and planting location as design elements. Students take Saturday and Sunday field trips (itinerary discussed at the first class) to urban landscapes, campuses, gardens, arboreta, and nurseries, meeting once (first class) at UCLA in a classroom setting. Students are responsible for their own transportation to remote lecture locations (carpooling is encouraged) and must bring a camera to all classes.