The length of the shoots of the second order is up to 80 – 100 cm. In the phase of mass flowering, the plant forms from 35 to 40 flowers on one bush. At the same time, the fruiting phase began. This month, the simultaneous formation of buds, flowers and fruits was observed on one plant. The flowering process depends on the climatic conditions. With an increase in air temperature and a decrease in relative humidity, the number of opened flowers increases. The caper’s need for high temperature, both during seed germination and during growth and development, once again confirms its thermophilic nature. In the summer months, there is a very intensive growth and development of capers. In mid-July, the length of annual shoots reached up to 4 m. The length of the leaves is 4 × 4.5 × 5 cm, the length of the fruit is 4 cm, the width is 2 – 3 cm. the drying of the leaves was not noted. In August-September, the growth and development of the plant continues, in October at a temperature of +16˚C – 17˚C, the leaves dry out and the aboveground part dies off completely.People that were living in large and dense cities, a good quality of life depend largely on the quality of the urban environment. Nearly four out of five European citizens live in urban areas where existing environmental quality limits are breached. Public parks and private gardens play a critical role in supporting biodiversity and providing important ecosystem services in urban areas. Especially, green areas outside hospitals are considered not only to be necessary but also beneficial. Renewed interest in nature within the hospital environment has resulted in research documenting the benefits of nature for reducing stress, improving mood, and increasing healthcare satisfaction.
Studies described that even a few minutes of visual exposure to nature can significantly reduce patients stress. The benefits that individuals can derive from plants and contact with nature have been discussed for thousands of years. Historical accounts suggest that this belief was an organizing principle for the exemplary hospitals of the past, where a primary goal was making patients more comfortable. The main goal of this study was to investigate users’ attitudes towards landscape design regarding the existing and future improvements to outdoor grounds and spaces,stacking pots by using a case study in order to collect data from the hospital users. The objectives of the study were: to develop an understanding of users experience within the landscape surrounding the hospital buildings; to investigate users considerations of landscape design in the improvement and maintenance of the landscape; to recognize and estimate the characteristics that the users who were surveyed felt they had contributed towards a sustainable friendly environment; to outline a set of recommendations to improve the landscape that surrounds the hospitals; and to consider users’ needs in the planning and design of hospitals.Findings from several studies of non-patient groups suggest that even brief visual encounters with real or simulated natural settings can elicit significant psycho-physiologic restoration within as little as 3 – 5 min. This restoration is manifested as reduced negative effects, and heightened positive effects and changes in physiologic systems that are indicative of reduced arousal or stress mobilization. Accordingly, Sherman et al. focused on the activities of the users in the hospital, and found that 66% of staff garden usage was in the form of “walk-throughs” from one place to another. Although this activity does not fully exploit the gardens to their full capacity, research such as Kaplan’s on micro-restorative experiences suggests that even these brief encounters may enhance staff’s well-being and job satisfaction, both of which are predictors of patient healthcare satisfaction. Furthermore, Douglas and Douglas investigated patients’ perceptions based on qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The results from a questionnaire survey provide suggestions for radical improvements, and found a sustainable health care environment to be supported of the patients’ health and recovery. A number of studies have discussed the relationship between mental stress and the healing effect of the natural and urban environment.
One study supports the view that the hospital environment is stressful because it is considered to be complex and not friendly. The authors believe that continuous exposure to such an environment leads to mental exhaustion. In such cases, they recommend exposure to a less complex natural environment, which would enable them to rest, develop companionship and burden them with a smaller amount of information. Humans have a natural tendency to prefer the natural landscape rather than the built-up environment, particularly when the latter presents an absolute lack of vegetation and water. Many people who are under stress seek solace in the natural environment, which they believe could make them feel better. Cooper-Marcus and Barnes evaluated four hospital gardens in the US with the use of observations and interviews of patients, visitors and staff. Their findings showed that from those interviewed 95% experienced a positive change of mood in the garden. During an investigation conducted by Cooper-Marcus, a sample of students in California was asked to describe where they go when they wish to escape from a stressful situation. The majority answered that they go outdoors to a natural or designed environment. Ulrich, of the University of Texas, found that patients’ views towards natural settings are associated with shorter hospital stays. Examining medical records, he found that patients who viewed trees during their recovery period needed fewer strong painkillers and their recovery was quicker compared with patients who had a view of a wall. Furthermore, patients who were able to view trees more frequently received positive written comments from staff about their condition in their medical records . Those patients with views of a wall, however, had far more negative evaluative comments . The hospital staff can also benefit from it by having access to windows that make it possible to view garden spaces. Indirect proof of the aforementioned is the satisfaction that patients and staff express when they find themselves in a natural environment, compared with being inside the hospital building.This research was carried out using a method referred as ‘stratified sampling’. The total population was divided into homogeneous, non-overlapping sub-population groups, called ‘strata’. This stratified sampling method is indicated for similar research, because it presents smaller losses in the evaluation of the various parameters compared with the ‘simple random sampling’ method. People were divided into four strata on the basis of their specialty in the hospital. The strata were as follows: stratum Α: doctors; stratum Β: nurses; stratum C: administrative Staff; stratum D: medical students. Responders were selected to provide diversity both in terms of their length of experience and the type of specialty area across the major clinical divisions of the hospital. Thus, the researchers sought to interview a variety of responders comprising the young and middle-aged as well as males and females.EU Habitats Directive 92/43 identified the species of European Community interest whose conservation requires strict protection .
Preservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, including the conservation of natural habitats and flora, represent a fundamental general interest objective of the EC. Conservation of endemic species requires a thorough knowledge of their biological and morphological features in order to define an appropriate strategy. The case study presented herein highlights how conventional strategies of propagation, such as the germination of seeds, do not prove to be efficient without the use of germplasm ex-situ conservation techniques. Androsace mathildae Levier is a glacial relict present on a few stations in the Gran Sasso and Majella Mountains, so it is classified as a rare plant according to the Red List of Plants of Italy, it is further included in Appendix I of the Bern Convention, in Annex II and IV of Habitats Directive 92/43 CEE and it is protected under Regional Law n. 45/79 of the Abruzzo Italian Region. A noteworthy aspect in plant survival at high altitude relates to the snow cover, that determines the distribution of plant species in the alpine zone. The snow cover has protective effects for the plants, consisting in the prevention of exposure to low temperatures, winter desiccation, ice blast and solar radiation . However, prolonged life under the snow requires resistance to physico-chemical stresses and snowbed pathogens. In particular, the snow cover affects the phenorhythm of the plants, which need to have sufficient carbon reserves to overcome the prolonged winter and for clonal or reproductive propagation. Vegetative shoot apices and leaf meristems in most alpine plants are buried several centimeters below the ground and thus are not exposed to low and high temperature extremes. The snow cover and the paucity of humus present in the cracks where Androsace mathildae lives cause water stress due to reduced water availability. Alpine plants acquire water and mineral resources from substrates which differ in many respects from those common at lower altitudes. The grain size distribution found in alpine soil depends strongly on parent material. By avoiding nucleation, a process called supercooling allows leaf and stem tissues to cool below freezing point without freezing. This process is favored by compartmentalization of plant water into cells and vessels, by cell wall impregnation with lignin and by the absence of particles which could initiate the crystallization process. The high capacity of clonal propagation in these high altitude species is due to the adjustments that the plants have developed to protect themselves from frost. In fact, strawberry gutter system the late frosts at high altitudes endanger the blooms and thus the possibility of sexual reproduction. The compression of live zone and the small scale patterns of life conditions in steep alpine terrain represent natural experiments which provide unbeaten opportunities to study the plant adaptation and the mechanisms for survival of physical stress conditions.
The potentially most climate change-susceptible taxa are those of mountain peaks, with limited distribution areas, such as rare or endemic species. The alpine flora is at risk of extinction in the European mountains, especially where there is no possibility of moving to a higher altitude . Species occurring in isolated populations at the highest peaks of the Apennines, such as A. mathildae, are also at risk. For conservation purposes, the plant is currently maintained as a small number of individuals in the flower beds in the Alpine Botanical Garden of Campo Imperatore. This garden is located in the Gran Sasso massif, within the “Gran Sasso e Montidella Laga” National Park, at 2117 m asl; thus its peculiar location makes it ideal for in situ conservation of Central Appennine high altitude species. The living plant collections and, increasingly, seed banks and cryopreserved tissue cultures maintained by botanic gardens, form a significant ex situ reservoir of endangered plants. Today several botanical gardens use in vitro techniques in germplasm conservation, and long-term storage of material in culture for potential applications of cryopreservation. Androsace mathildae can be found in the cracks of limestone at an altitude between 2500 and 2900 m asl. Its discovery dates back to 1875 and it is ascribed to the Swiss naturalist E. Levier while he was hiking on the Gran Sasso Mountain. He dedicated the plant to his wife Mathilde, since she saw it first, and he performed the early studies on its iconography and botanical characteristics. The genus Androsace L., comprises about 150 species distributed in extra-tropical mountain ranges of the Northern hemisphere. They are particularly common in the temperate-cold regions of the Arctic and in Asia, North America and Europe. A. mathildae, a European member of Aretia, is a nano-chamaephyte present in the higher peaks of the Central Appennines; it is a perennial cushion plant, up to 3 cm high, with single rosettes or forming a cushion with a diameter no larger than 3 – 5 cm. The leaves are basal, lanceolate, shiny green and glabrous except for a few hairs at the leaf tips. The flowers are axillary, single, and the pedicel is often curved when fruiting. The calyx is green, with a stellate pubescence, and the corolla has white petals with a yellow eye. The fruit ripens in late summer and contains from three to seven seeds , which upon falling end up inside the leaves of the basal rosette or slightly away from it; the flowering time occurs in June-July. Until recently, it was believed that Androsace mathildae was also present in the mountains of the Balkan peninsula.