Berlin

Abstract

Berlin, which occupies 900 km² and contains 3.4 million people, is unique in two respects, first it was politically and physically divided for many decades and second the flora of the western part is probably the most intensively and extensively studied of any city in the world. It is the city in which modern urban ecology was born. As with most cities Berlin can be divided into four abiotic and floristic concentric zones from the dense central core to the outskirts. Since the late eighteenth century, a total of 2,178 species have been recorded in the city, of these 1,392 species were present in 2000 – virtually 20% being non-native. Urban botany allows us to watch and study evolution in action for example (a) the formation of new species, and plant communities, (b) hybridisation of native x non-native and non-native x non-native taxa that would never meet naturally and are concentrated in cities and (c) the gene/environment interaction – evolution of taxa in response to the unique environmental conditions that exist in urban areas.